


The Southern Cross

by Skylinneas



Series: Tales of Strangereal [6]
Category: Ace Combat
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi, POV Multiple, POV Original Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 28,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26122108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylinneas/pseuds/Skylinneas
Summary: Less than a year since the end of the Lighthouse War, a new conflict is brewing in the turbulent region of South Osea. Reyna Cruz, the young leader of the famed Gryphus Squadron, must lead her very few allies in a struggle to save her homeland where every decision matters, and the truth behind the war is not what it seems to be. [ACX, Girl Gryphus One]
Series: Tales of Strangereal [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1895308
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	1. The First Casualty of War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MontyMarten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MontyMarten/gifts).



> This story is inspired a lot by "Ace Combat 7: Three Strikes" by MontyMarten, which is a very beautifully written novelization/retelling of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown that is filled with complex character developments, detailed and well-thought-out expansions to the game's storyline, and guaranteed emotional rollercoasters on every chapter. I highly recommend it! And cheers to you, Monty! Thank you for an amazing story from a fellow AC fan! :D

**Alendal, Democratic Republic of Leasath, South Osea**

_**October 1st, 2020** _

**0940hrs**

Albert Genette took a quick sip from his glass of water, frowning at the sight of the city below him. He should have been expecting this ever since he set foot on Leasath's soil, but what he had seen since the journey from the airport still left him uncomfortable nonetheless.

Even though Alendal is Leasath's capital city, there's a frightening amount of slums and shantytowns that stretched as far as eyes can see – practically covering the surrounding hillsides on the city outskirts, and even then they're not enough to cater to the city's impoverished populace. He had seen homeless people taking up refuge under bridges or at bus stops, delinquents harassing outsiders before snatching their belongings, and even kids dumpster-diving just to find scraps of food. If this is how things are happening in the country's most developed city, then Genette shuddered to think about how the rest of Leasath would be like.

And yet, here he was, standing on the top floor of a building over sixty-floors high in the middle of the city – one of the few skyscrapers in the heart of Alendal reserved exclusively for the Leasathian elites. The contrast between Diego Gaspar Navarro's private penthouse and the broken city outside didn't leave much to the imagination of the Osean journalist. The self-proclaimed 'Supreme Leader' of Leasath apparently didn't seem to care as much about the state of his country – even though it had just been through a violent civil war – as the various luxury furniture and decorations in his room. Genette has seen the likes of him before. It was obvious that Navarro is an ineffective leader at best and a corrupt dictator at worst, and Genette has a good reason to believe that he's the latter.

But now is not the time to dwell on it. Not in this place. Not right in the tiger's den.

He sighed, silently pitying the poor Leasathians down below, before pacing away from the windows towards the reception area in the middle of the room and made himself comfortable on one of the fancy couches – which was surprisingly very pleasant to sit on. At least the man has a fine taste in his furniture choice.

He put the glass down on the desk and booted up the laptop in front of him – which was put on standby earlier – and checked today's news on the GAZE website. He shook his head slightly while chuckled lightly to himself: even though there are so many news websites out there he could pick, he had already made it a habit of always checking the GAZE website ever since writing a story for them a few months ago.

Apparently Princess Rosa Cossette D'Elise's Usea Restoration Project ran into multiple roadblocks and isn't gaining as much international support as she had hoped. Considering Erusea's role in the Lighthouse War, Genette isn't surprised why the other nations would think twice about trusting them, the Princess's heartfelt unity speech at the ISEV notwithstanding. Erusea had started two major wars, after all. The whole nation and its people probably gained as much infamy as the Belkans by now.

One name in the news article caught Genette's eyes: Andre Olivieri, the eccentric CEO of Olivieri Life Insurance, was mentioned to have been trying to get into contact with the young princess to talk about the 'private war insurance' that he claimed could help Erusea making a faster recovery from the damages it suffered during the war. With most of the world's nations being somewhat apathetic to Erusea's plights and won't lend them the support they so needed, Genette figured it won't take much for Olivieri to convince the desperate young leader of Erusea to sign the offer. Something about Olivieri rubbed him in a very wrong way, though, and Genette found himself hoping that Princess Cossette won't sign that deal no matter what Olivieri might have offered to her.

Genette couldn't help but pity the poor girl. At the mere adolescent age of 19, she now has to face challenges that even statesmen with years of experience over her would struggle with, and now she's probably hated by millions because of her role in escalating the conflict during the initial phases of the war, even though she's also a victim in a large web of conspiracies planned by her own military officers. Now, with no one else left to blame, she became the convenient scapegoat as the perpetrator of the war. A war criminal who should be held responsible for the atrocities committed by her soldiers, whether or not she was directly involved in them.

It's how it always is. People always wanted to see things in black and white, good guys and bad guys, us and them, when the reality is far more complicated than that, and nothing's ever as simple as deciding who's right or wrong. Genette's senior Brett Thompson taught him that lesson a long time ago when he made a documentary about the Belkan War.

If only Vincent Harling was still here.

The creaking sound of a door opening interrupted Genette's train of thought. He instinctively raised to his feet as his eyes diverted from the laptop to greet the newcomer. It was General Santiago Garza, Navarro's right-hand man. Garza is dressed in his full dark-green and red military uniform. His almost balding black hair hidden beneath his red beret, his more than a little pudgy form reminded Genette of a certain OADF colonel that he knew. Garza let out a huff of both annoyance and frustration once he stepped into the room, his pale yellow eyes fixated at Genette as if he's looking at the undesirables hanging out on the streets outside.

"Well, if it isn't the pesky journalist from yesterday," Garza said impatiently, not even caring about the hostile tone toward his guest, "What the hell do you want now? I already told you that Navarro is busy. He doesn't accept visitors. Are you people too stupid to understand that or do I have to spell it out for you!?"

"Actually, it was the day before yesterday, sir," Genette corrected, taking Garza's insults in stride. He's used to men like him before. "And I fully understand by now that Mr. Navarro currently has important matters to attend to elsewhere…"

"That's _Supreme Leader_ to you, civilian," Garza immediately interrupted, pointing a finger at Genette with a threatening glare, "Official visitor or not, I won't hesitate to lock you up for a week if you don't address him as such. There won't be a next warning, understood?"

"Crystal clear, sir," Genette continued without missing a beat, making a mental note to be careful about his words later, but he also won't let this little threat to stop him, "And as I was saying, I fully realize that the Supreme Leader is currently busy elsewhere, so I do not intend to request an audience with him today."

"Why are you wasting my time and patience, then?" Garza sneered as he dropped himself on the couch opposite of Genette before lighting his cigar.

"Actually, I was planning on interviewing _you_ , general," Genette replied as he formed a friendly smile in an attempt to calm Garza down a little. Forget about trying to stay on the general's good side. There isn't any to begin with.

"What, me?" Garza frowned, surprised at Genette's comment, "What about?"

"Your story, sir." Genette continued, his smile never fading as he made himself comfortable on the couch once again. He had to get on the general's good side somehow, and playing to the man's ego would be the best way of achieving that, "I did some research about the civil war in your country a few months ago, and how your brilliant leadership skills finally brought it to an end and united the long-divided country under the Supreme Leader's banner. I find that…very inspiring, sir."

"Well, what do you know? A journalist that actually knows his stuff," Garza smirked with satisfaction as he puffed a cloud of smoke from his cigar into Genette's direction intentionally as an act of intimidation. Genette turned his head away a little and held his breath to avoid breathing in the smoke, but he otherwise remained calm in front of the general. If he played his cards right, then Garza would've bought into his own legend and gave Genette anything he wants, so he'd just have to endure this a little while longer.

"Of course I'm the guy who ended the civil war, and you know why? Because I'm the only one who had the balls to do whatever it takes to win it!" Garza chuckled, "Those rebel scum tried to discredit me and Navarro with their lies and treachery, and there are actually fools that are dumb enough to believe them! Heh, those imbeciles needed to be taught a painful lesson, and I was the one who gave it to them."

"Wouldn't applying force to the rebels incite more unrest than it already was?"

"Heh, since when did those idiots ever learn about fighting?" Garza cackled as he motioned his cigar-holding right hand around with a smug grin on his face, "As if the unorganized, untrained militias would be any match for the elite Leasathian Military. We know how to fight as a functional army, they can barely keep it together under intense gunfire. Even a child can tell who would win in a straight-up battle."

Genette took another sip from his glass of water, can't help but agreeing with the man on this. As arrogant Garza was, he has a point that civilians would stand no chance against a trained military force.

There's still one thing that remained unexplained, though: if the Leasathian Military is that effective, then why did it take so many years before the civil war was finally resolved? Genette figured that the question might hit too close a topic that would piss Garza off, though, so he decided to keep it to himself for now.

General Garza puffed out another smoke before putting the cigar on a tray, much to Genette's silent delight, before getting up from his couch and walking over to a minibar and fixing himself a drink. As if being able to read Genette's current thought, he continued:

"It doesn't take a military genius to win against a bunch of idiots who don't even know how to hold a gun," Garza said as he walked toward the window and gaze at the sight outside, "It's the ones who gave them the guns in the first place that are the pain in my asses."

"You mean to say that there's someone who's funding the rebel forces? They're not just operating on their own?" Genette decided to humor the general a little, asking a question that at first glance seems to paint the loyalists in a positive light. General Garza turned to look back at him with a half-amused, half-mocking expression.

"You really think a civil war would last this long without some other forces at work, huh? Don't be naïve," Garza chuckled, "A typical insurrection would have been crushed easily within a year at most, not three years long. Someone has been supplying those rebels with weapons and brainwashed them with delusional ideas, that's why the war dragged on for so long."

Garza paused for a moment as he stared outside the windows, the once smug expression was replaced by one of contempt and disgust. "I lost a lot of good men under my command in that blasted war. Good soldiers who died pointlessly because of those ungrateful bastards! But I suppose I shouldn't blame them, right? In the end, they're just fools who didn't know any better. The true enemy is still at large in the south. They thought us weak and sought to divide us, to exploit us, to _take over us!_ Those sons of bitches!"

Garza's growling voice in his rant actually made Genette feel a bit uneasy, and he's not someone who got nervous easily. For a moment, the buffoon Leasath general that Genette dismissed as just yet another glory-seeking, a know-nothing-know-it-all armchair officer actually looked genuinely terrifying as a ruthless commander of an elite armed force. The man can be pretty intimidating when he wanted to. Gotta watch his words carefully from now on.

"Aurelians," Garza spoke the word with venom in his voice, as if the very name offended him personally, "Those degenerates are the ones who supplied the rebels with weapons and money to keep the war going. They exploited us for _years_ while we're too busy killin' each other. The satellite disaster last year only helped make their thievery easier than ever since everybody was freaking blind!"

"I thought the Aurelian government had sent several humanitarian aid operations to Leasath. Are you implying that it was all a lie, sir?" Genette asked. Garza snickered loudly as he turned around and faced Genette once again. Suddenly, he just slammed the glass of whiskey he's holding onto the ground. The sounds of the glass breaking startled the young journalist, but he kept his composure.

"Typical Oseans…Harling had poisoned your little minds with that dangerous sentiment that there's good in everyone, and look where that got him. The world is better off without that idiot," Garza scoffed, "Welcome to the real world, kid! It's a dog-eat-dog world out there. The Aurelians would have you believe that they're the good guys, the _saviors_ who are trying to save us from ourselves when in reality they're just capitalistic bastards who want nothing more than to strip my homeland bare!"

Genette listened to the general with the blank expression on his face, continuing the naïve journalist façade. Of course, he knew that everything Garza said about Aurelians couldn't be more wrong. Everybody knows that Aurelia had been trying to help Leasath recover from the civil war through multiple humanitarian aids. He was sure because Vincent Harling himself supported the Aurelians in this endeavor in his last year in the office. For some reason, though, the supplies never reached the poor civilians, and Leasath's situation only got worse and worse. It isn't too hard to imagine what the Leasathian government did with them.

"Navarro and I knew the truth. We're the only ones with any goddamn sense to see the Aurelians for what they really are: two-faced cowards who deserved nothing less than a bullet in the head," Garza continued gleefully, his face forming a smirk that barely concealed his excitement, "Well, that'd be rectified soon enough. Today is the day that Aurelia will be taught a painful lesson, to learn how it feels like to be oppressed and taken advantage of."

A sense of dread ran down Genette's spine. He knew this day was coming for a few months now, but he never actually expected that it would happen this soon…not just after the crisis in Usea had just been resolved.

"Are you saying that the Democratic Republic of Leasath is…" Genette began, each of his words spoken slowly and with much weight. He didn't even have to finish the line before Garza cut him off with the answer he was afraid to hear.

"…formally declaring war on the Federal Republic of Aurelia!" Garza announced loudly with a prideful grin on his face, "For every Leasathian soldier who died in the civil war, I'll make sure to send ten Aurelians to the grave in return. Today, Leasath will finally have its revenge."

As if on cue, Genette heard the thunderous sounds of jet engines. He got up on his couch and slowly walked toward the windows, his eyes widening as he tried to process just what he's seeing outside: a large fleet of Leasath Air Force planes was flying overhead – their presence filled the skies above as they flew westward. In the middle of that fleet were two massive aircraft of immense size that cast their dark shadows over the city below, where Genette could also see dozens of tanks and hundreds of soldiers marching through the streets of Alendal – all of them heading into the same direction.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Garza asked in a surprisingly calm and friendly voice in contrast to his aggressive tone earlier, which took Genette aback for a moment, "Good soldiers, every single one of 'em. They are the pride of Leasath and represent the best qualities every true Leasathian should have, and now they finally have a chance to fight a meaningful war for their homeland, fight for their people instead of against them, and fight for the glory of their supreme leader."

"They...indeed they are, sir." Genette hesitated for a second before forcing himself to speak out, even though he'd rather be anywhere else than this place right now.

"You want a story, journalist? I just gave you one." Garza walked over and gave a pat on Genette's shoulder as a 'friendly' gesture, "Tell the world that Leasath will no longer tolerate Aurelia's exploits any longer. Tell them that our superior military prowess should make anyone think twice before messing with us. If it's a war they wanted, then we will give them a bloody one, and we shall win. You do that, and I might just get you an audience with Navarro himself."

Genette turned to see Garza's pale yellow eyes – almost like the eyes of a wolf – staring at him with a stern expression, almost as if wordlessly sending him a warning: _Mess this up, and you won't live long enough to regret it. I can assure you._ Genette felt a chill run down his spine as the realization hit him of just what did he get himself into.

"I must go see to my men now. _Don't_ overstay your welcome." Garza finally said as he adjusted his beret into place, "Consider my offer, and then we might have a chance to talk again. Adios."

And with that, Garza left the room. As soon as the door closed fully, Genette let out a sigh of relief. Talking with Garza had to be one of the more unpleasant interviews he's ever done, but he had to do it because Garza is his best shot at getting close to Navarro. He never expected to be a witness to a war declaration once again, though. This is going to complicate things up a lot.

_It's the Circum-Pacific War all over again._

Genette shut down his laptop, figuring that he should take some time to process all this before he decides to do anything. Right now, the people of Aurelia should be his main concern, not Navarro. They're about to be steamrolled by the Leasathian blitz without any warning, and even if Genette could somehow inform anyone in the Aurelian Government about this right now, things are going to get ugly nonetheless, and he'd be exposing himself to Garza's wrath when he learned about it.

General Garza…something about the way he spoke about Aurelians rubbed him in a very wrong way, and it's not just because of what atrocities he planned to do to them: Garza seemed to genuinely believe that the Aurelia really played a part in screwing Leasath over during the civil war, even though the rest of the world knew otherwise. Two possibilities manifested in his mind: either Garza was lying through his teeth, or he actually believed it to be the truth, and Genette didn't know which was worse.

They often say truth is the first casualty of war. How many people involved in a war actually know how or why it started in the first place? The many wars that happened throughout history saw countless soldiers being sent to die en-masse fighting for something they didn't even understand. Worse yet, the victors ended up writing the history anyway, so even the very thing they died for might be lost to history by the time the winning side is done with it.

Such is the tragedy of the human race.

Genette picked his belongings up from the desk, resigning himself to the inevitable fact that a lot of people are going to die, both Aurelians _and_ Leasathians, for some causes that they don't even know or care about. The best thing he could do right now is hoping that by some miracle, someone could step up to the challenge and put an end to the conflict before it can escalate any further.

Someone like the heroes of Razgriz – his old friends, or the pilot with the Three Strikes, or all the other ace pilots out there who almost single-handedly brought an end to their respective conflicts. From his many years of experience covering war news, he can say with certainty that an extraordinary pilot could not only turn the tide of a war, but also change the course of history itself.

And if his instincts are right, then he might know an Aurelian pilot who would fit the criteria. He's just hoping that she would be ready for the tough battle that lies ahead of her.


	2. Hope Spot

**Cape Aubrey, Federal Republic of Aurelia**

_**October 10** _ _**th** _ _**, 2020** _

**1250hrs**

It has been ten days since Leasath launched an invasion on Aurelia. It certainly felt a lot longer than that, especially with everything that's happened during that time period, at least for Captain Reyna Cruz of Gryphus Squadron. She still has a hard time coming to terms with the situation, as did pretty much everyone else. The Leasaths struck so quickly and with such efficiency and ferocity, it's as if they had been waiting for a chance to strike for a long time now.

They should have seen it coming. Leasath has been causing trouble along the borders many times already as if they were probing for holes in Aurelia's defenses. Who would've thought that they'll strike so fast after their own civil war had just ended barely a year ago, though? Reyna certainly didn't, and yet it still made perfect sense. Nobody would've expected a sudden attack after a previous conflict had just been resolved, especially with everything that went down in Usea in the meantime as well.

The sudden communications loss resulted from the satellite disaster in the Lighthouse War was the perfect cover for the Leasathians to amass their forces with nobody the wiser. As a result, the Aurelian defenders were caught completely with their pants down (literally, in some cases) and the capital city of Griswall fell within days after the initial attacks.

What was left of the Aurelian military were scattered all over the region, cut off behind enemy lines fighting guerilla warfare against overwhelming odds and hope for the best. The majority of those who were able to regroup was now here at Aubrey Air Force Base. What was once a remote base so far away from the frontlines, Reyna never would have expected it to see the light of battle, is now effectively Aurelia's last hope against Leasath's onslaught.

If this base falls, Leasath wins. Period.

"Make way! Make way!"

Loud shouting echoed through the hall as Reyna stepped out of her room. She turned toward to look at the commotion and saw several medics rushing through and eventually passing her by, all of them carrying stretchers with wounded soldiers on them.

She felt a pit in her stomach once she recognized some of the patches on their uniforms: pilots from Phuku Lagolla Air Base. That base held out the longest against the Leasath Army despite being so close to the capital thanks to an elite experimental air force squadron. For a brief time, they actually gave hope that the Leasathians could be stopped early on. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

As if the situation couldn't get any worse, when the Leasath Army launched a surprise attack on Port Patterson in the south two days ago, the base commander happened to be there on a meeting with the other high-ranking officers. All of them were either taken prisoner or killed, and thus Aubrey AFB was left without its commanding officer and have to fend for themselves. Heh.

As the medics carry the last group of wounded away to the infirmary, Reyna noticed someone interesting trailing along with them: a young man not much taller than her wearing a khaki uniform and a black cap. In his hand was a grey laptop so Reyna guessed he must be some intelligence officer or some kind, but he looked pretty young, probably even younger than her, and she is already one of the youngest members of the AAF.

"Today's going to be a hell of a day, huh, cap?" Reyna heard a familiar voice spoke up from behind her, prompting her to turn around and saw the speaker: 2nd Lieutenant Rick Carias, her second-in-command of the squadron. Walking alongside him was his best friend, fellow 2nd Lieutenant Roy Carter.

"Falco's down for the count now," Roy added with a grim expression, "So it's only us left…"

Rick smacked on Roy's shoulder to reassure his friend, "Come on, Roy. We still have a lot of allies here, and it's not like the Falcos won't recover. We need to just buy some more time."

"The lieutenant's right. We're not out of this fight just yet," Reyna added in an attempt to keep the morale of her wingmen up. As a squadron leader, it's basically part of her resume. Keeping your cool under pressure was why she got to become one in the first place, "Those Leasaths thought they already pushed us back into a corner by taking Phuku Lagolla. They're gonna let their guards down and won't take us seriously, and then we'll show them why we're the finest pilots in the AAF."

"That's the spirit, cap!" Rick grinned, "See, Roy? Even the captain ain't nervous, so you shouldn't be! We'll kick those Leasath asses out of our backyards before they even realize what hit 'em."

"I suppose you're right…" Roy conceded. Reyna could still see some doubts in his expression, but otherwise, he didn't seem to think too much about it, which Reyna was thankful for. Even if she did a better job of hiding it, she was feeling as nervous as Roy in this regard. After all, for all they know, their squadron could very well be the very last remaining fighting force Aurelia has left. How could anyone _not_ be nervous about this? Well, there's Rick, but nothing ever gets that guy down anyway.

"Where are the others?" Reyna asked about her other three squadronmates, trying to change the topic.

"Uh, Elena's probably helping the medics out in the infirmary, Luis said he was going to help the mechanics out in the hangar, and Leo just went to the cafeteria earlier," Roy answered, seemingly contend that the conversation finally shifted away from what he didn't want to talk about, "We're just about to go get 'em."

"I'll get Elena. I'm going to the infirmary so I'll see her anyway. You guys just check with Luis and Leo and meet us in the briefing room in five minutes," Reyna told them, walking back into her room a grab her green jacket hanging behind the door before coming back out, "We don't know when those Leasathians will get here, but they're definitely on their way, so be ready for anything. We could get orders to sortie anytime now."

"Yes, ma'am!" Rick and Roy spoke in unison, giving Reyna a quick salute before walking past her toward the exit. Reyna silently sighed in relief. At least that's one thing she got over with, just only about a hundred more to go on.

She put on her jacket and made her way across the corridor to the infirmary, each step she took felt like her feet were weighing her down as if subconsciously trying to stop her from going any further. On one hand, she wanted to go help Elena and the doctors out with the wounded since they probably got their hands full already, but on the other, it meant she had to witness the sorry state the pilots from Phuku Lagolla had been left in. She knew someone close to her who was there, and she was terrified of learning the possible bad news that could await her in that room. Another bad news is the last thing she needed now, not before she has to go on a sortie that might decide the fate of her entire nation.

She was about to head into the room when someone suddenly burst out of the room and almost ran into her.

"Sorry! Coming through!"

The voice belonged to the young man Reyna noticed trailing the medic teams earlier, the grey laptop still hanging close in his hands.

"I need to find Captain Cruz!" He began shouting as he nervously ran through the corridor, causing some other base personnel to stare curiously at him, "Captain Reyna Maristella Cruz of the 7th Tactical Fighter Squadron 'Gryphus'. Has anyone seen her?!"

"I'm over here!" Reyna immediately shouted after him. She cringed a little once she heard her middle name spoken out loud. She was always kind of embarrassed about having her full name spoken. It felt like she did something wrong. Not only that, the guy even used the full designation name of her squadron, too. It'd be so much easier to just say 'Gryphus Squadron' and be done with it. Rarely anybody in the Aurelian Air Force even refers to each other by full designation names anymore because they're so mouthful. This guy must be a new meat who still does things by the book.

The young man stopped dead in his tracks before quickly turning around with such urgency, he almost lost his footing. Reyna was afraid he'd fall off for a second, but he managed to recover and paced back before stopping in front of her. Now that Reyna saw his face clearly, she could see that he's definitely a couple of years younger than her at the least. He has a crew-cut brown hair and pearl-green eyes with some freckles on the face. He was standing at about the same height as Reyna, but his small form made him look somewhat shorter than he actually looked.

"I'm sorry for earlier, ma'am! I…" The younger man gave Reyna a quick salute with his empty right hand, his face looked _extremely_ nervous. The poor kid had probably been through a lot today and was barely holding it together at the moment, "Er…Warrant Officer Solano, ma'am! I'm with the 9th Experimental Flight Technology Evaluation Squadron 'Falco' from Phuka Lagolla AFB…"

 _Geez, what's with this guy and blurting out full names for everything?_ Reyna thought to herself. It's not that she disliked professionalism, it's just that with everything happening recently, being professional is certainly not among her main concerns right now.

"Slow down, officer. Take a deep breath first," Reyna held her hands up in front of her to permit the junior officer to relax, "Just go over things one by one."

"Uh, yes, ma'am!" The warrant officer announced loudly as he stood at attention, "I must request the 7th TFS's presence at the briefing room now, ma'am. We have an emergency mission!"

Before Reyna had any chance to answer, another person poked her head out of the infirmary room: just the person she was looking for.

"What the hell was all that fuzz!?" 2nd Lieutenant Elena Chase spoke up as soon as she stepped out of the door while giving the young officer an annoyed look.

"Keep ya voice down, kiddo! It's crazy enough in here as it is...those wounded didn't need to hear your….oh," she paused a moment as she noticed just who Solano was talking to, "Morning, Captain! I didn't see you there."

"It's alright, Elena," Reyna greeted her back, giving a light smile as she did so, "This young officer here was just about to inform me about an emergency mission. We're required at the briefing room ASAP."

Elena sighed loudly once she heard the news, "And here I thought I'll have some more time taking care of those poor sods in here. The doctors already have their hands full. Ah, well."

"I'll make requests to enlist more volunteers to help taking care of the wounded!" Officer Solano immediately offered, "I'll do what I can to help, ma'am!"

Elena shot him a frustrated glare as if she was silently warning him to shut the hell up already. Reyna couldn't help but be amused a little at all that. _Damn, Elena, give this poor kid a break!_

"Look, why don't you go on ahead to the briefing room, officer Solano?" Reyna told the young officer, "I and my wingmen will catch up with you later. Just give us a minute."

Officer Solano glanced back and forth between Reyna and Elena, before coming to the conclusion that maybe he should do as he's told, "Uh, understood, ma'am!"

Reyna nodded a little to permit Solano to go on his ways, and the young officer gave another quick salute before he did so. After that, she turned her attention to Elena, who was also watching the young officer running along the hallway with a half-amused look on her face.

"Jeez, that kid has to get a stick out of his ass or something."

"Give him a break, Elena. His previous base had just been bombed to hell. Those are all his friends in the room that you just walked out of," Reyna replied, her face turning grim again as the reality of the situation returned to her mind, "I guess it must've been pretty bad."

Elena nodded a little, her expression wasn't looking too happy either, "There's only a handful of survivors, captain, and over half of them are wounded. Falco Squadron has lost all but two of their members, and both of them aren't doing too well right now."

 _Only two?!_ That painful feeling returned to Reyna once again. Falco Squadron originally had four members, but now they're down to half strength. That is if they could even go back to flying at all with the injuries they sustained.

Seeing the pale look on her squadron leader's face, Elena quickly added, "Don't worry. Your cousin is still alive. Guy's one tough S.O.B., though, so he should be okay."

"Oh, thank God!" Reyna sighed out loud in relief. At least she has one less thing to worry about before whatever important mission that Solano guy was going to put her through, "Thank you for telling me this, Elena. You have no idea how relieved I am right now."

Elena just giggled at her captain's response. That was a softer side she rarely showed when on duty, so she's just glad to see that her squadron leader is still a normal person just like everyone else, "Yeah, well, he won't be getting up and fly anytime soon, though. The doctor just put him to sleep earlier and told me that he shouldn't be disturbed for the time being."

"Good, let him rest up for now," Reyna agreed, "Besides, we've got bigger things to worry about right now. I've told Rick and Roy to go get Luis, so we should head to the briefing room immediately. Wouldn't want to keep that new guy waiting."

"Ugh, I'm already going to hate my next sortie, aren't I?" Elena groaned. Reyna just pat her shoulder playfully in response as they both head toward the briefing room.

* * *

**1300hrs**

To say that the atmosphere in the briefing room was tense would be a big understatement. Usually lively with loud chatting and playful antics, the base personnel were sitting silently in the dark today while nervously waiting for the briefing to begin.

Only Rick, Roy, and their mutual friend 2nd Lieutenant Luis Garcia were doing their usual banters with each other, and even then they were noticeably tamer than usual. The only person who was acting like usual was 2nd Lieutenant Leo Cortes – he didn't really like to talk much, and he always just sulked around in the dark corner of the briefing room every time there's a mission coming up, and nobody really minded him. Reyna and Elena were already in their seats beside each other in front of their friends as they watch officer Solano prepared the briefing. Meanwhile, their WSOs were hanging out in the back forming their own group, quietly trying to finish up the sandwiches in their hands.

Speaking of food, Reyna envied that at least they get to eat something beforehand. An emergency briefing at the usual lunchtime meant most everybody involved didn't get to eat anything, hence the mostly sour mood in the room. Reyna could felt her stomach rumbling from hunger herself. If this was to be her last day alive, couldn't life at least be kind enough to let her go out on a full stomach?

After what felt like forever, Solano finally turned on the projector. The screen displayed a 3D terrain map, which displayed a section of a smaller overhead map of Cape Aubrey in the lower-left corner. The area of operation was not very far from Aubrey City, meaning that their mission would take place near residential areas. Just when Reyna thought things couldn't get any worse.

"Um, okay! Let's begin the briefing," The young officer finally began as he adjusted his uniform into place, "Operator Eugene Solano. I'll be keeping you up to date."

"Good to see you again, kid!" Rick spoke up from behind with a grin on his face, "Been a while since Z2K. How's that birdie lookin' out for ya now?"

 _Huh? Rick knew this kid?_ Reyna thought to herself. Eugene looked a bit flustered by the interruption, not knowing whether to reply to Rick or continue his briefing. Fortunately for him, Luis, Reyna's fifth wingman, resolved the situation for him.

"Let the kid do his job, Rick! You two can catch up later," Luis spoke while elbowing Rick lightly in the shoulder. Meanwhile, Elena was shaking her head in annoyance at the whole commotion, "Just keep going, Eugene."

"Ah, alright, sir," Eugene nodded as he tried to compose himself again before continuing, zooming the map in to focus on a group of red arrows.

"We've got the news that an invading Leasath squadron has just taken off from the Puna Plains en route for an attack on our position, Aubrey AFB."

He paused for a moment as he rotated the scene to focus on each red arrow groups: there were four of them, each containing four arrows adding up to sixteen enemy targets in total.

"As you are all aware, the Leasathians have almost wiped out all our military units," Eugene continued as he stopped the scene at the location of the Aubrey Base itself, "From their perspective, this attack is the final nail in our collective coffin. After all, this is the _only_ base that hasn't fallen under their control."

"Well, isn't that cheery?" Hank Keyes, Roy's WSO, spoke up sarcastically, "So even if we somehow win this, we'll still have to take back the entire country all on our own. No pressure at all, huh?"

"Let's just focus on winning today," Carlos Cabrera, Rick's WSO, replied back, "If we can even _win_ today, that is."

"About that, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky," Eugene cut in, sporting a small smile for once after being tense and glooming for so long, which Reyna appreciated. At least the kid is capable of looking on the bright side, "It looks like the enemy has gotten a little overconfident and sent only a small attack force, as you can see on the screen."

"I wouldn't exactly call that 'small'." Luis spoke up, frowning at the projector screen. Always the careful one, that guy, but his comment wasn't entirely without merit. There were several murmuring noises in the room agreeing with him, "Sixteen targets versus only six of us. How many fighters do they have anyway?"

"Oh, I forgot! The enemy squadrons consisted evenly of fighters and bombers," Eugene quickly added, "That means eight fighters and eight bombers each."

"That's not too bad," Elena said, "The only real threats are the fighters. As long as we take 'em out fast, those bombers are easy pickings for us."

"Their fighters only outnumber us by two. This won't take very long." Ian Santos, Leo's WSO, spoke in agreement.

"They seem to have only a pair of fighters guarding each bomber group anyway," Jonas Taggard, Luis's WSO, added as he observed the screen, "That means the other groups would be too far away to help when we attack each one of them. That'll make things even easier for us."

"Not only that, we also have the terrain advantage," Paula Diaz, Elena's WSO, spoke as she pointed at the mountainous terrain displayed on the screen, "We can use those mountains there to avoid detection while we circle around and attack them from the back. They won't see us coming."

"Correct. That's the plan, ma'am," Eugene nodded in approval, "Gryphus Squadron will fly low and circle around the mountains to avoid enemy radar. That should give you the drop on the enemy. If everything goes well, we should be able to get the upper hand on the Leasathian forces in the area."

"Um, are we forgetting something important?" Zoe Alvarez, Reyna's WSO, cut in with a concerned expression on her face, "Are we sure that…whatever annihilated Phuku Lagolla and shot down Falco Squadron won't be there again?"

An uncomfortable silence filled the briefing room once again. Reyna could see some pilots nodding in agreement with her, and even Eugene started showing doubts in his face as well. After all, he would be the one person who was there when Falco Squadron was blown out of the sky by some… _something_.

"We…have no info on that," Eugene admitted, his eyes narrowing down as he tried to avoid everyone's gaze on him, "All we have at this moment are what we're seeing on the screen. We don't know if the Leasathians have any other surprise in store for us."

Reyna, who up to now had been observing the briefing quietly, decided that she needed to say something to bring morale back. She never liked having to do rousing speeches, but because she's the most senior-ranking personnel in the room right now, she had no choice but to do something to prep the others up. Silently cursing her base commander for not being there, she forced herself to stand up before turning around to face her fellow pilots. It's not what she liked to do, but it's the right thing to do.

"Come on, guys. We're Aurelian pilots!" Reyna began, trying to keep her voice calm and collected as much as she could, "I don't know what's waiting for us out there today, but what I _do_ know is that if we don't do anything, then our country is lost, period. Everyone you love, everything you cherish, they would be left at the mercy of those Leasathians if we don't make our stand here today. Well, it'd be a cold day in hell before I let that happen!"

Reyna observed around the room and, to her joy, she actually saw her fellow pilots nodding in agreement with her, the grim expressions on their faces earlier were gradually turning into smiles of determination. Rick was even sporting a big grin on his face. Even Leo – as stoic the guy usually is, was smiling a little at her as well.

 _Holy hell, this is actually working._ Reyna thought to herself, couldn't help but feeling a bit proud at herself for pulling this of.

"So I say we go out there and show those bastards what we're made of," Reyna continued, raising her voice a bit to rouse her friends a bit more, "Send them a message that it's about time they regret messing with us, because this is our home and they have no business to be doing anything they want in it. They thought they had pushed us back into the corner. Well, let's show them that our claws are still sharp, shall we? Let's go kick their asses!"

"Hell yeah!" Rick was the one who shouted out first, and the rest of the pilots immediately followed suit. For a while, the atmosphere in the briefing room actually reverted back to like how it usually was before the invasion, with cheerful and determined smiles on everyone's faces, ready to make the Gryphus name proud every time they're about to go on a sortie.

As the cheering died down a little, Reyna settled herself back into her chair with a contented smile on her face. She could see Eugene staring at her admiringly, he didn't even realize that he didn't finish his briefing yet.

"Officer Solano, if you may?" Reyna teased him a little, nodding at the bewildered young officer to permit him to continue in a friendly way, "Everyone is eager to get into the air now, you know?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, ma'am!" Eugene quickly replied back before composing himself once again, the sheer nervousness caused Rick and Roy to chuckle a little, but he didn't really mind it, "One final thing. During combat, my codename would be Crux. I will keep you up to date on the battle situation, so please pay attention to your radio!"

"Acknowledged," Reyna confirmed, giving another smile at Eugene in encouragement, "I put my trust in you to be our eyes and ears in the sky, officer, so do your best, okay?"

"Roger that, ma'am!" Eugene spoke confidently for once, noticeably looking elated at the chance to prove himself to his new squadron. He turned to face the determined pilots in the room once again before taking command, "Gryphus Squadron, please protect this base and destroy the enemy bombers. Let's pay back the Leasathian forces with at least one defeat. Prepare to launch immediately!"

"Hooah!" Everyone cried out in unison before making their way to the hangars.

* * *

**1400hrs**

It didn't take very long until Gryphus Squadron got their birds into the air, the infuriating part was waiting for the enemy to arrive. Turned out those B-52Hs were slower flyers than Reyna thought. Now she _really_ regretted not grabbing something to eat before the sortie. Ah well, at least the bombers being slow flyers would make her job easier, so she supposes she shouldn't complain.

They were all flying F-4Es. Reyna wished she could've picked something more mobile, but since Aubrey AFB wasn't exactly considered important for the higher-ups, they didn't bother to supply the base with better planes, hence the F-4Es were all they have. At least she and her friends had been flying them for a long time, they were pretty much pros at it now.

They spent about half an hour flying low along the mountainous regions in the southeast part of Cape Aubrey to keep out of the Leasath radar detection. The area themselves contained a naturally occurring electromagnetic field similar to that of the famous 'Round Table' in Belka or the Solo Islands in Ceres Ocean, meaning that it's the perfect location to set up an ambush. Paula wasn't wrong when she said they have a terrain advantage: they've been training in these mountains pretty much since they joined the squadron. To them, stunt flying through the mountains is what they do for warm-ups. This was no trouble at all.

After what felt like forever, they managed to circle around the enemy bomber groups coming from the southwest. Reyna could finally see the first enemy group in front of her: a pair of B-52Hs protected by a couple of F-1s. Shouldn't be too hard to take care of.

She finally raised her plane's altitude. Her wingmen immediately followed suit. Rick and Roy were flying cover on her flanks, and Luis and Elena did the same for them, and Leo hanged around on the very back directly behind Reyna like the loner he was. They were flying in a tight delta formation suitable for a six-wing squadron. Reyna could always trust them to know what they're doing.

"Crux to Gryphus Squadron!" Crux finally broke radio silence after the long trip around the mountains, realizing that the time for stealth was over, "Maintain your present course. Do you see the enemy formation on your radar?"

"This is Gryphus 3, we read you loud and clear, Crux!" Roy confirmed, "We're coming up on the enemy from behind. Just like we planned."

"Gryphus 1 copy," Reyna said, maintaining her plane as she switched her weapon to the SAAM. A large green reticle was then displayed on her HUD, with the first bomber right in the middle of it, "Gryphus Squadron is now in position to attack."

"You can let the escorts go. Just make sure you take out all bombers." Crux advised, "We can't let them get to our base."

"A single fighter is just as much of a threat as the bombers," Luis replied back, flying his plane forward to get within range to engage the F-1 in front of him, "This is Gryphus 4, requesting permission to engage the fighters, Gryphus 1."

"Granted," Reyna confirmed in a cheerful voice, figured that it'd be a good practice for her wingmen, "Gryphus 2, 5, 6, support him. Gryphus 3, you're with me."

"About time, captain!" Elena chirped through as she diverted her plane to assist Luis, "Let's kick ass, Rick!"

"Damn right! We'll show 'em what we've got!" Rick agreed as he followed Luis and Elena to engage the fighters. Reyna could totally picture his signature grin behind the oxygen mask, "After all, they're no match for us Aurelian pilots! Isn't that right, captain?"

"Excuse me, Gryphus 2, Gryphus 6. Please use codenames during the mission!" Crux issued a warning in an annoyed voice, causing Elena to huff impatiently. This guy really couldn't stop being so uptight all the time, huh?

"Gryphus 2, understood," Rick grudgingly replied back, before lowering his voice and addressed his captain, "Jeez, this new guy does everything by the book! Don't you think, Gryphus 1?"

"We can deal with it later. We have a job to do" Reyna reminded him as they're now within the range of firing their missiles at the enemy, and she already achieved a lock-on on the first bomber, "Gryphus Squadron, fire at will!"

Within seconds, all Gryphus members fired out their SAAMs at their targets, which didn't even try to evade at all due to be taken by surprise. Rick and Luis engaged the F-1 on the right, while Leo and Elena did the same with the other on the left. Reyna's SAAM hit straight into the bomber first before Roy's SAAM finished it off for her.

"Aw, Gryphus 5, you stole my kill!" Elena wailed over the radio as Leo's SAAM hit the F-1 before hers did. Leo didn't bother to reply back to her, which somehow amused Reyna a bit.

"Your own fault for not firing quicker, Gryphus 6," Instead of Leo, his WSO Ian replied back in his place.

"You kids should see us pros at work!" Rick announced proudly as his missile struck and downed his target, beating Luis's by a millisecond, "Hey, Gryphus 4, give me a challenge, will ya?"

With the first bomber down, Reyna and Roy moved to engage the next bomber which was flying some distance ahead of them over Aubrey City.

"Wha-? Ho-hold on a second!" Rick spoke up as he flew closer to the bomber.

"What is it, Gryphus 2?" Crux asked.

"You're seeing this, Crux? The city's being bombed!" Rick's panicked voice replied back like he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Reyna watched at the city below and saw fires and smokes raised up from multiple locations. She could even saw people running around among the chaos below.

"Unbelievable! There are no military facilities in that city!" Crux cried out after realizing just what the Leasathian bombers did to his countrymen.

"I'll make those bastards pay!" Roy growled as he sped his plane up to engage the bomber in front of him, "This isn't war. It's slaughter!"

"We'll get them together, Gryphus 3," Reyna said. She kept her cool, but deep inside she was boiling with anger herself. These are civilians, goddamnit! They intentionally dropped bombs on innocent people who weren't even fighting in a war. What kind of monsters did this sort of thing?!

Soon enough, she got a lock on her target: the bomber with the bastards who bombed the city below. She didn't hesitate even for a millisecond to fire her missile. Roy did the same thing.

"Fox one!"

Both Reyna and Roy's missiles fly straight toward the enemy bomber. It tried banking hard right to evade, to no avail. The limited mobility of the B-52H just simply won't allow it to do the necessary maneuvers to evade something as accurate as SAAMs. It was turned into scrap metals shortly after.

"First bomber group down," She said calmly, her voice barely containing the resentment at the disgusting enemies who didn't hesitate to put civilians into danger for no good reason, "Gryphus Squadron, engage the remaining targets. Show no mercy."

In a pretty uncharacteristic move, Leo was the first one to respond to her order, "Gryphus 5, I'm going in. Two more bombers coming right up."

"Whoa, Leo actually _talks_? This must be my lucky day!" Paula spoke through the radio. She had been trying to talk to Leo for a long while now but could never get anything more than a few short sentences out of him.

"Roger that, Gryphus 5," Reyna made a note of this particularly unusual event. Even she was taken aback a bit by Leo's sudden talkativeness until the beeping warning sound brought her back to reality. The next pair of fighters were alerted to their attack now and they were moving to intercept them.

An F-1 was closing into Reyna from head-on. He had his missile lock on her, but Reyna was way ahead of him.

"Gryphus 1, fox one!"

She launched out a SAAM, taking a gambit that the enemy would rather evade for his dear life than trying to take her on, and she was right. The F-1 pulled down hard to evade her missile, but she already anticipated that. As the enemy leveled himself, Reyna already had him again in her crosshairs. One quick pair of missiles later, and her opponent was history.

"You did it! Good job!" Rick complimented. He and Roy managed to take care of another fighter themselves, while Leo and Elena moved in to attack the bombers.

"Gryphus 5, Gryphus 6, you take care of the bomber on your left," Reyna ordered, "Me and Gryphus 4 will get the one on the right."

"Copy that, Gryphus 1," Elena and Luis replied back in turn, while Ian answered for Leo just like always. Damn it, she could never get this Leo guy even though he's been flying with her for some time already.

The bombers are sitting ducks, as usual. Reyna and Luis fired a SAAM each at the target, and it was Luis's missile that struck the killing blow, gaining him a confirmed kill. Elena and Leo engaged the other bomber and did the same, and it was Elena who gained the kill this time.

"Ha! How's _that,_ Gryphus 5?" Elena shouted triumphantly over the radio, "Now we're even!"

"That was just a slow-moving bomber, amateur!" Ian replied back in a snarky voice, "Try shooting down a _real_ target, then we'll talk!" Elena could only grunt frustratingly back in response.

The next bomber group was split up, with each bomber flying some distance apart of each other and a fighter covering them. Instead of F-1s, the fighters were now F-5Es, which were somewhat more mobile. Shouldn't be too difficult to take on than before, though. Plus, they were now flying over the sea, so at least there was no worry of any potential collateral civilian damage.

"I'm not letting anyone steal this next kill from me!" Elena announced as she engaged the pair on her left, "Watch this!"

Elena fired a SAAM out at the F-5E in front of her. She maintained her flightpath to keep the F-5E in her reticle until the missile connected before she moved in to finish the undefended bomber. A pair of missiles and a quick MG burst from her turned the plane into a fireball in seconds, gaining her two more kills.

"Nice one, Gryphus 6. Almost as good as me!" Roy said as he engaged the other pair on the right, "Gryphus 4, you can get the fighter."

"Heh, don't want some challenge, Gryphus 3?" Luis chuckled, though he complied with Roy's request and engage the remaining F-5E. The opponent seemed to be just an amateur as he didn't even try to evade when Luis fired a pair of normal missiles at him. He just decided to bail out instead.

"Chickened out, huh? Shoulda think twice before invading someone else's country, ya bastard!" Luis spoke mockingly at the opponent pilot, though he left him alone as he parachuted down to the sea below. The strong waves should be enough to decide his fate.

With the fighter out of the way, Roy decided to get up-close-and-person with the bomber. The pilot tried evasive maneuvers as best he could, but he just ended up making himself an easier target for Roy's MG fire. Within seconds, it was shot down out of the sky.

Only one remaining enemy group left. The cape began appearing in Reyna's sight again, and on it was the Aubrey AFB. They almost reached their target now.

"Gryphus Squadron, I can see the remaining bombers from here. They're almost at the base!" Crux reported with concern in his voice, "Shoot them down now!"

 _Right, right, I'm getting to it, boss!_ Reyna responded in her mind. Seriously, couldn't this guy take it easy for once in a while?

Reyna observed the last bomber group: they were split into two just like the previous one, but one bomber on her right was flying at a higher altitude than the left one. The two remaining F-5E fighters were also covering for them as well. She had little time to tangle with them if she wanted to take down the bombers before it reached her base.

Despite the seemingly urgent situation, seeing that her wingmen were all doing pretty good jobs earlier, Reyna decided it's time to test her skill a little.

She took them all on.

"This is Gryphus 1 to all planes. Stand down for now. Leave this one to me." She said, couldn't help but feel somewhat cocky at what she's about to do.

"Whoa, the Southern Cross is showing off again!" Carlos laughed.

"This should be good." Jonas agreed, "Hey, take pictures for me, Gryphus 4!"

"Uh, you sure this is a good idea?" Zoe asked Reyna from the backseat.

"Have a little faith, Stardust," Reyna chuckled, referring to Zoe by her callsign, "You know how I like to fly."

"Oh, I _know_ , alright…" Zoe sighed, bracing herself for whatever stunt Reyna was trying to pull, "Shouldn't have eaten that sandwich earlier, damn it…"

Reyna observed the scene in front of her: the two F-5Es were now turning around and heading toward her together. The two bombers were speeding up, determined to reach their destination as fast as possible. There could be only one shot to pull this off right, but that's all she needed.

She switched to SAAM again: there were four of them left, more than enough to take care of the enemies. She waited until the two F-5Es flew closer together that they're both within the reticle. She couldn't afford to miss, so she waited until they get close enough to her.

_1000 meters…800 meters…600 meters_

Both planes had their missiles locked on her now. Not yet…

_400 meters_

"Gryphus 1, fox one!"

She fired a SAAM out at the first target, then quickly switched to the other and fired out another one. The enemy planes didn't even have a chance to evade before they were both blown out of the sky.

"Yes!" Hank cheered out.

"How about it? Did you get a kill?" Rick asked as if he couldn't register what he had seen yet.

"Of course she got a kill," Zoe replied back in a deadpan tone as if she wasn't surprised by her captain's stunt in the least, "You _know_ these are long-range missiles, right?"

Reyna just chuckled in response as she lined her plane up with the bomber to her left first, which was flying at roughly the same attitude at her. She flew in fast and close, launching a pair of normal missiles and a few gunshots at it, downing it easily.

The only remaining bomber was flying far above her to her right. The base was almost overhead now, so Reyna needed to work fast.

She did a sharp pull up before rolling her plane right – doing a barrel roll upward to reach the same attitude as the bomber. The sudden shift in G-force caused Zoe to shriek out a little, but it got Reyna to where she needed to be. As soon as she leveled her plane, the last enemy was practically dead in front of her. With that, she fired her last two remaining SAAMs at the bomber, destroying it instantly.

Four targets, all downed in less than ten seconds. That's got to be her new personal record.

"This is Crux. All bombers shot down. No remaining enemy planes on the radar," Crux reported with a relieved tone for once, "Mission accomplished, Gryphus Squadron!"

"Hell yeah!" Elena shouted out, "I knew you can do it, captain!"

"Still a showoff as always, huh?" Luis chuckled, "But really, that was awesome, cap!"

"Yee-haw! Take that!" Rick cheered as he did a barrel roll to celebrate the victory before rejoining the formation, "Bagged every last one of 'em! Didn't even break a sweat!"

"That's because the captain did most of the work while you barely do anything, bud!" Roy jokingly replied.

"Hey! I would've gotten more kills if they had sent more out here!" Rick joked back, "Damn, I can't wait to take the fight back to them now. Gryphus 1, what do you say we head to the capital and take her back right now?"

"Heh, maybe tomorrow Gryphus 2," Reyna said with a grin on her face. Things were actually looking up for them for once. Their first victory! And it certainly won't be the last if she could keep her squadron's spirit as high as this, "Excellent work today, Gryphus Squadron. Let's RTB. I'm so hungry I could eat an entire turkey right now."

* * *

**1413hrs**

Eugene let out a big sigh of relief upon seeing all Gryphus Squadron planes safe and sound, the mission complete with no fatalities except some unfortunate civilians in the nearby Aubrey City that he already dispatched rescue choppers that he could spare to assist in the evacuation. Apart from that, things seemed to be looking up so far. He really needed this victory, especially after what happened to Falco Squadron and Phuku Lagolla AFB earlier this morning.

"I'm willing to bet the enemy got scared and run away!" Eugene heard 2nd Lieutenant Rick's cheerful voice spoke over the radio and couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the man's constant lightheartedness. He had his reservations about Gryphus Squadron at first, considering their less-than-professional attitudes toward what was supposed to be a serious mission. It's certainly not what he expected from the supposedly most decorated air force squadron in the country.

Eugene always strived to maintain professionalism in his duties and it's not just because the training academy drilled it into him. He always takes pride in being a capable and dutiful soldier – it has been his ambition since he was very young. Because of this, he had a pretty low tolerance for rule-breakers.

And yet, he couldn't help but cheering along with them, celebrating their first victory and their first step toward reclaiming their homeland. As troublemaking as they are, Eugene supposed he could let this one slide for now. They _needed_ this. He took a quick glance at the various monitors displaying the mission statuses in front of him with a satisfied smile on his face. The Gryphus pilots were returning home now. They made it.

Mission accomplished. No causalities. No enemies left on the radar. Everything looked perfect.

_No enemies left on radar…?_

Eugene blinked as he observed the radar screen, his eyes couldn't believe what he was seeing. What was supposed to be an empty screen now displayed a small dot at the bottom right corner, and it was quickly approaching the center of the screen.

_A blip? But…there's no enemy left!_

"Gryphus Squadron, I've got a reading on radar!" He spoke into the radio, "Something's coming at high speed…"

Eugene felt his heart skipping a few beats as the realization finally kicked into him, along with a terrifying déjà vu experience: he _had_ seen something like this earlier, just this morning!

The same mysterious blip on the radar. The same traveling speed. There's no mistaking it.

"It's a missile!" Eugene shouted as loud as he could into the radio. Goddamn his carelessness! He should've noticed this coming sooner!

"What!? Where!?" Rick yelled back in a panic, followed quickly by Elena's concerned voice repeating after him, "Where is it!?"

"Answer me now!" Luis shouted through demandingly, "Eugene!"

Eugene's eyes raced through the screen as he tried to determine where the missile was launched from using the trajectory of the object on his radar. As fast as his hands could move, he enlarged the real-time aerial imagery captured by a UAV at a location south of Cape Aubrey, where the missile was coming from.

What he had seen almost caused him to pass out: the once empty skies over Puna Plains was now occupied by a massive black aircraft that was definitely not there before. The aerial warship suddenly, almost magically, appeared out of thin air.

"The Puna Plains! It's coming from the Puna Plains! Some large aircraft…something!" Eugene trailed off, the shock and fear overcame his ability to form coherent sentences and could only repeating himself uselessly. He was literally seeing a monster of an aircraft in front of him. He didn't know what was going on anymore.

"Hey, it better not be what I think it is!" Roy exclaimed.

Eugene shouted the only thing his mind could think of: "Get out of there now!"

"Where should we go!? Where's it coming from!? How far is it!?" He heard Rick demanded over the radio like a voice from a faraway place, a pang of guilt crossed his mind like a truck hitting into him: Rick wasn't going to make it. Nobody's going to make it.

"Gryphus Squadron, evasive action, now!" Reyna – Gryphus 1 – shouted over the radio. Eugene saw some of the blue arrows on his radar quickly breaking formation, but by then the missile was already right on top of him.

"It's no use! We're too late!"

Suddenly, Eugene heard a thunderous loud noise coming from the outside as the room shook violently – as if it was hit by a sudden earthquake. The radar screen in front of him flickered for a few seconds.

By the time it recovered, four out of six blue arrows that formed up Gryphus Squadron were already gone.

"Gryphus 2! Come in Gryphus 2!" Eugene shouted out to the last person he had contact with, but there was only static. There was nothing left but static, "Gryphus 3!? Gryphus 4!? Anyone!?"

Eugene kept shouting through the radio in vain, even though deep down he realized that there was nothing he could do. Gryphus Squadron was gone.

Gone just like Falco Squadron did. They never stood any chance.

_There's no hope left. It's over._


	3. Aftermath

**Gleipnir, Puna Plains, Aurelia**

_**October 10** _ _**th** _ _**, 2020** _

**1415hrs**

Captain Frank Burlington observed the live feed of the destruction of the Aurelian Air Force's last remaining squadron on the screen in front of him with a frown on his face. The Shock Wave Ballistic Missile did its trick, alright, but then again, it was way too overkill for something as trivial as destroying a single enemy squadron.

"Direct hit on the enemy squadron, sir. Four out of six targets eliminated," A young flight lieutenant - his second-in-command of the ship - reported matter-of-factly, as if he didn't find the results satisfactory. He paused for a brief second before he continued, "Should we prepare to fire the second shot, sir?"

"No. We have our orders from General Garza, lieutenant: one shot only," Burlington replied, trying his best to keep the frustration he had in check, "This is a demonstration, not an actual combat operation. The Supreme Leader wanted to display the superiority of the Gleipnir for the world to see with the might of the SWBM. If we fire the second shot now, it'd be a show of weakness because it meant one shot wasn't enough to take care of the enemy, and he will not tolerate any show of weakness."

"But we've got them on the run, sir!" The lieutenant protested, "If we fire the second shot, we could end this war here and now!"

"Enough, lieutenant!" Burlington snapped, "I don't like it any more than you do, but orders are orders. This is how the supreme leader wanted it. Are you saying we should defy him?"

The young lieutenant hesitated for a moment. Every pair of eyes on the bridge turned to look at him as he's contemplating nervously about what he should reply to his captain. After a while, he finally gave in, "N…no, sir. The supreme leader's wish is our command."

"Good," Burlington said with a nod, giving the nervous lieutenant a pat of reassurance, "Let the ground forces take care of the rest. Our job here's done. Turn this ship back to Terminus Island, lieutenant. We've been flying for half a day now. The ship needs refueling."

"Yes, sir," The lieutenant gave him a quick salute before turning his attention back to his crew and began issuing commands. Burlington could understand his subordinate's concerns, though. In fact, he pretty much agreed with his sentiment: this was a colossal waste of resources and power, and for what? A publicity stunt. That's what this was all about. It was less about finishing off Aurelia once and for all and more about boasting about Leasath's military might – as if the previous nine days of taking over almost an entire country weren't the proof enough already.

An entire bomber squadron – along with the good pilots who were serving in it - was sacrificed to lure the enemy squadron out just so that the high command could get that glorious shot of the SWBM blowing them out of the sky. The same result could've been achieved if they had just targeted Aubrey AFB and destroy it before any enemy fighter could even have a chance to get airborne. They can get the enemy in one swift strike, and nobody had to be sacrificed, but _that_ wouldn't look as good on camera, would it?

Burlington turned to observe the screen in front of him again. One of the two surviving aircraft was limping back to the base with a trail of smoke coming out of it. The other one didn't show any visible damage and was circling around the area of the initial attack – probably to look for survivors.

 _We have a skilled one here, haven't we?_ That much Burlington was certain. The plane on the screen was the first one to pull evasive maneuvers just right before the SWBM hit, therefore it was the only one that managed to get out of the blast zone in time. It takes a skilled pilot to be able to react that fast, even Burlington had to admit that. He zoomed the camera in as close as he could to the enemy, hoping to learn more about his opponent should they crossed paths with each other again.

_A Phantom, huh? Who still flies Phantoms anymore? It's 2020! Those Aurelians were really scraping the bottom of the barrel._

Burlington couldn't help but snickered a little, though he quickly reminded himself that it was this very same Phantom that shot down four planes in less than ten seconds. Whoever was flying that plane was not someone ordinary.

He stared closer at the tail of that plane upon noticing something interesting on it. A bird insignia? A vulture, to be exact, drawn in a cartoonish style. The damn thing's even _smirking_! Now that got a chuckle out of him. What sort of madness inspired someone to come up with this crazy thing? Something this silly would never fly in Leasath Military. Goddamn Aurelians!

He observed the black wings of that blasted vulture to get a closer look: there were also five stars on it as well, four of them formed up two pairs with two lines linking between them.

"A cross?" Burlington mumbled to himself. He vaguely remembered hearing that only the most promising pilots in the Aurelian Air Force would be designated with this specific cross-like shape. The Southern Cross: the symbol of Aurelia's pride and joy, the best of the best, the soul of the nation. The highest honor that could be bestowed upon an extraordinary individual. In his campaign across Aurelia so far, he knew of only one other Aurelian pilot who had the same emblem on his plane. A pilot who was already shot down at Phuku Lagolla by the _Gandr_ this morning.

A hollow realization hit Burlington: as long as the Southern Cross still flies, Leasath will never have a complete victory. The very fact that this pilot survived the events of this day is a testament to the skills enough. This could be the opponent that could render all of Leasath's previous victories to be for naught.

Burlington downloaded the video record of the operation into his personal thumb drive, intending to study his opponent as much as he could after he returned to base. The next time he and this pilot meet again, he will _not_ miss.

He will remove the Southern Cross from the skies by any means necessary.

* * *

**Cape Aubrey, Aurelia**

**1445hrs.**

Reyna felt her legs giving out as soon as her feet touched down on the ground after she landed her plane back at the base, she barely kept herself from falling. Both her body and mind felt numb as she absentmindedly walked along the cold hard concrete grounds near the hangar back toward the central building.

This was a disaster. An absolute disaster.

"Hey! Hey, Reyna! Goddamn it, talk to me!"

She felt Zoe's strong firm hand grabbing her left shoulder from behind and turned her whole body around, to which she was too unresponsive to resist. She didn't even hear Zoe shouting at her earlier until she was practically right behind her.

"What the hell just happened?!" Zoe demanded, her voice was shaking – and Reyna could felt that she was just as lost as she was, "Where did that missile come from!?"

"I…I don't know, I…" That was Reyna's only reply. Her heart was racing fast as she felt herself hyperventilating. This was her fault. She put them all out there. She put them in the line of fire. Their deaths were on her.

Seeing the pale look on her captain's face, Zoe simply shook her head with a solemn expression, "Never mind. We can talk about it in the debriefing. Right now, we need to check with the others in the infirmary. Leo and Ian should be there by now."

Infirmary…so that's where she was initially planning to go. There was so much going on in Reyna's mind at the moment, she could barely keep up with half the things she's thinking about. She couldn't even feel her feet dragging her across the now empty hangar that once housed three planes of Gryphus Squadron – three planes that didn't make it back – before she and Zoe finally found themselves back in the main building.

The nauseating smell of medical equipment and chemicals didn't do Reyna's sanity any good when she and Zoe stepped into the infirmary. The eight beds in the room were all occupied, with six already containing wounded from Phuku Lagolla. The remaining two laid the survivors of Gryphus 6, Elena and Paula. Leo and Ian were already waiting for them.

"Oh God, no…Paula!" Zoe's voice trembled as she noticed her best friend's state. She immediately rushed by her side, only for Ian to hold her back, "No, wait, Zoe! Wait! The doctors are trying to help her right now!"

Zoe resisted for a few more seconds until she relented and took a step back. Ian put a hand on her left shoulder to comfort her while turning to look at Reyna, before shaking his head lightly with a grim expression. The implication was clear: Paula wasn't going to make it.

She decided to walk over to Elena's bed, seeing as her condition had stabilized. Out of all the unfortunate Gryphus planes, hers and Paula's were the only ones who managed to survive their crash. Though Paula was injured badly by the impact.

"Ca…captain…" Elena's weak, defeated voice sounded almost like a whisper, but just hearing her struggling to speak almost broke Reyna right then and there, "How's…Paula?"

"She's…" Reyna hesitated, looking over to Paula's bed where the doctors were hard at work trying to revive her. "She's going critical!" One of the doctors exclaimed as she grabbed a defibrillator and gave Paula a shock, then another…and another…to no effect at all. With each shock, Reyna felt as if some invisible hand was punching her in the gut each time. She could saw Zoe putting her hands to cover her mouth as her eyes widen in horror, while Ian looked away from the scene entirely.

"She's…not doing well," Reyna admitted, deciding not to lie to her wingman. She wanted to say something, _anything_ , any reassurance that would convince Elena that her WSO is going to be fine, but as the beeping sounds of the heart rate monitor from Paula's bed were getting increasingly erratic, those words couldn't escape her mouth no matter how much she wanted them to, "I'm…I'm sorry, Elena…"

Elena sighed as she braced herself mentally to prepare for the worst news. She mumbled weakly to her captain, "It's not your fault…" her eyes staring blankly at the ceiling above.

Not long after, Paula's heartrate flatlined. That green devilish line flickered on the heart rate monitor next to her bed accompanied by a loud, long beeping sound as if mocking the surviving Gryphus pilots. Reyna felt like she was going to be sick as the reality finally struck her like a tidal wave: she had just lost seven friends today. Rick, Roy, Luis, Hank, Carlos, Jonas, Paula… they're all gone, and their deaths were all on her.

Seeing Paula lying there, it suddenly hit her that this was the first time she actually saw someone dying in front of her, and the thought made her skin crawled and she suddenly felt very dizzy and her body shaking violently. That could easily have been her right there on that bed: lying motionlessly with grave wounds that slowly saps her life away until there was nothing left. Is this how soldiers on the ground felt when they see their comrades dying in front of them? It was so easy to forget how terrifying death is when you're up there in the sky, where you don't have to witness those deaths up close like this. This image was going to stay with her for the rest of her life.

The doctors nodded at each other solemnly as one of them took the oxygen mask off Paula's lifeless body, allowing Reyna to finally see her fallen friend's face: despite all the bruises and blood, Paula's expression looked surprisingly peaceful as if she was sleeping. Zoe was crying softly on a chair nearby as Ian tried her best to comfort her while Leo, as stoic as he is, didn't show any reaction but an audible sigh before walking past Reyna and leave the room without any word.

Somehow, Reyna didn't cry, even though she wanted to. She didn't even know what to feel at this moment. Painful? Anger? Sorrow? It was as if she was harboring so many deep emotions inside all at once, her mind couldn't process what she should feel at the moment, as if it couldn't handle anything anymore and shut itself down completely. She was almost thankful when Eugene Solano appeared into the room and recalled her back to reality.

"Um…Captain Cruz," Eugene slowly began, his voice sounded hesitant and _very_ apologetic, "I…I must request you and your wingmen at the briefing room, ma'am…"

Reyna nodded slowly as she turned to look at her friends. Zoe and Ian were definitely in no mood for anything right now, "I'll go. Just let my wingmen be for now. They needed the rest."

"Yes, ma'am," Eugene replied solemnly, acknowledging the tragedy that befell the last hope of Aurelia. He could see Ian glaring at him with cold, icy eyes, which caused the young officer to cower back before quickly walking out of the room – unable to face the victims of his failure. Reyna could only sigh deeply before following Eugene out of the room.

As if she didn't have enough grievances to deal with today.

* * *

**1455hrs.**

"The mission was…was a success."

Eugene spoke out each word as if they were hurting him deep inside, still haunted by the reality of what had happened despite their victory, something that Reyna could understand and completely relate to. Reyna could see that he deliberately tried to avoid looking at her directly, even though she was the only person coming for the debriefing.

"The destruction of the enemy bombers will help keep an enemy invasion of Aubrey Base at bay…" Eugene continued, though he paused as he mentally prepared himself to address the horrible truth, "However, we also suffered serious losses…"

Eugene paused again, his expression turning grim. "There's…" He took another short breath before he managed to continue, "There's no way anyone could ever call this mission a success."

"Yeah, no shit!" Eugene was startled as Ian burst into the room with a furious look on his face, followed closely by Zoe and Leo. He started pacing menacingly toward the young officer before Reyna got up from her chair and stopped him. He pointed at Eugene accusingly before growling at him, "You _fucked_ up, asshole. You should've seen that missile coming! My friends are _dead_ because of you! Ya hear me!? YOU FUCKED UP!"

Ian yelled at Eugene with such hatred, it actually sent the young officer cowering in fear with a terrified look on his face and his eyes widen in shock, unable to even say anything back.

"Goddamn it, Ian, cut it out!" Reyna shouted as she used whatever strength she had remaining to shove Ian back into a wall behind him, "He didn't kill your friends! If you want to blame anyone, blame those Leasathians!"

"He should've seen that missile coming! It was his job!" Ian repeated himself again even louder, he was practically screaming, "You knew that this could happen! You knew it's what shot down the Falcos. You were our eyes in the skies, you bastard! We trusted you!"

Reyna could hear Eugene started sobbing from behind her. Just as she turned to look, Ian moved again and quickly shoved her out of the way as she let her guard down before approaching Eugene with his fist drawn. Reyna and Zoe moved in to stop Ian from doing anything rash, but it was Leo who stepped in between Ian and Eugene first. Ian didn't even have time to be surprised before Leo shoved him backward, sending him slamming into the wall behind him.

"Get a hold of yourself, buddy!" Leo growled, "Those were my friends that died up there, too. Do you think they'd want to see us fighting each other like this? Your enemy is _not_ in this room, goddamnit! If you want to hate someone then hate those assholes who shot our asses out of the sky. Now act like a soldier you're supposed to be, or I'll find a new guy to be my wizzo tomorrow, got it?!"

Reyna, Zoe, and even Ian looked at Leo in bewilderment. Leo had never displayed such anger before, let alone any emotion at all, so his sudden anger came off as a surprise to all of them. Ian starred coldly at Leo, before raising his left arm as if he was about to retaliate, but Reyna got in front of him first.

"Don't you even think about it, Lieutenant Santos," Reyna warned, her left hand grabbing Ian's raised arm firmly to lock it in place. She did not need to deal with anyone's shit right now, "Go take a walk and clear your head. That's an order."

"But…" Ian started to protest, but Reyna wasn't having any of it. She raised her voice and gave him a cold glare. "This is a war, goddamn it! I won't tolerate any infighting in my squadron. Do as I say or I'll ground your ass even if it means I'm flying solo on the next sortie. Dismissed!"

Ian took a step backward, his eyes glaring daggers at Reyna, Leo, and Eugene once again but he didn't try anything. Finally, he huffed loudly before he spun around and marched out the door without saying a word. A few seconds later, Reyna could hear a loud ' _thump_ ' echoing from the corridor outside – most likely Ian venting out his frustrations on the wall.

"I…I'll check up on him, captain," Zoe, who up until now was observing the whole commotion playing out quietly because she didn't know what to do, spoke up with a concerned expression, "I'll try to calm him down if I can."

Reyna nodded in permission while giving a small comforting smile to Zoe, who forced herself to muster a return smile before she left the room as well to follow Ian. Reyna turned toward Leo, who just settled himself back down in his usual spot with his arms crossed and the familiar stoic expression on his face. Reyna wanted to talk with him more about what happened earlier but figured that now would not be a good time. She just wanted to get this debrief over so she could get some rest already. Today's already lasted a lifetime.

Reyna turned her attention to Eugene, who was still standing in a corner of the room with tears running down his face. Seeing the young officer's miserable state, Reyna felt a pang of guilt hitting her once again. The poor kid had been through two devastating events in one single day, from losing his friends at Phuku Lagolla to this, and it didn't help when he kept thinking that it was all his fault. No wonder he was such a nervous wreck.

"Hey, it's okay…" Reyna began, trying to sound as kind and sincere as possible to the young officer, "I'm sorry for my wingman's behavior. We're all on edge, but you shouldn't have to suffer more for it."

"I'm…I'm sorry," Eugene mumbled softly through his cries, "I couldn't do anything to save them…it's all my fault…"

"No, it's…" Reyna paused as she noticed that Eugene was using the exact same words as her line of thought she had been having since earlier. So he was blaming himself for the whole disaster just like she did as well. Ian's accusations certainly didn't help matters. This was a screw-up, alright. Reyna knew that much. But nobody should harbor that guilt alone, not at a desperate time like this.

"You did what you could, Eugene," Reyna reassured, knowing all too well how putting all the blame to oneself would do to one's sanity, "Nobody could've seen that attack coming. We didn't see anything on our radar until you warned us that there's a missile coming. If you hadn't, none of us would be standing here today. You saved us, officer."

To Reyna's small relief, Eugene actually turned to look at her – as awkwardly as he was – and managed a tiny half-smile in response, his eyes flickered as he tried to drive his tears away. He was nowhere near happy, but at least he stopped sobbing now, so Reyna guessed that at least she did something right.

"I'll…I'll…"

"You don't need to say anything," Reyna cut him off with a small smile, "For now, I want you to get some rest. When you feel you're ready, work on finding out just what the hell did the Leasathians used to attack us so we will be ready should we run into it again. They may get us good this time, but with your help – I'll make sure that there won't be the next time. We're not out of this fight yet, so give yourself a pat on the back and get back to work, understood?"

Eugene hesitated for a moment before giving Reyna a salute, "Y-yes, ma'am!" and Reyna nodded at him in response before Eugene left the briefing room with his laptop, leaving her alone with Leo – who was still sitting there observing the whole thing in silence.

"Thanks for helping out earlier," Reyna began. Having knowing Leo as her wingman for a month, she wouldn't expect him to say anything first, "Ian is…not exactly the best person to talk to when he's angry, but I suppose you already know that…"

Leo snickered, "Ian's acting like an ass, but what he said did have a point, captain. That officer screwed up badly and seven people died because of it. He had seen that attack once at Phuku Lagolla just earlier this morning. He should've been able to see it coming this time, yet he didn't. This was all on him."

"So that's what you actually think, huh?" Reyna asked, her eyes observing Leo curiously as the man leaned back on his chair and rest his head on the wall behind him, "Why didn't you say anything, then?"

Leo chuckled before giving Reyna an 'are you serious?' expression, "Because that kid is the only guy we still have left who could be our eyes in the sky. We need to keep his morale up if we want him to still be able to do his job. I thought you should know how it works already, captain."

"How kind of you, then," Reyna said sarcastically, "I suppose you don't really think that we can pull a comeback from this mess as well, are you? That we're totally screwed?"

"Wouldn't be the first time I have this thought," Leo replied, which caused Reyna to frown as his answer surprised her. _Wouldn't be the first time?_

Before Reyna had a chance to say anything, Leo quickly got up from his chair and walked past her to leave the room, "Just do what you want, captain. I'll talk with Ian and get him ready for, well, whatever comes next."

"Appreciated it," Reyna replied. She realized that Leo was trying to dodge a drawn-out conversation – which was typically in-character for him – though Reyna also suspected that it may have something to do with what he said earlier. She wanted to probe him further about what he meant by that, but she realized that she already had enough to deal with this afternoon so she let him go on his way. They could all use a clearer mind right now.

* * *

**2020hrs**

To the surprise – and extreme relief – of everyone at Aubrey AFB, the Leasathians didn't launch another assault on the base after the attack that afternoon. From what Reyna could gather, what's left of the Aurelian military were mounting resistance forces in multiple locations, so her best guess was that the Leasathians had to divide their forces to curb those resistances, which was why they couldn't be bothered to finish Aubrey AFB off. An airbase deprived of its planes and pilots was no longer a priority target. That, or the Leasathians actually got that careless. Reyna wished that they could've been this fortunate in the afternoon.

Reyna spent hours trying to write personal letters to her fallen wingmen's families, most of it revising and rewriting, again and again, to ensure that the message would come across as gentle and empathizing as possible, which wasn't an easy task. She was never a good writer back when she was younger. She could barely write an essay analyzing a film, let alone writing a death notification for relatives of her deceased friends.

At least there were no more unpleasant confrontations in the evening, something Reyna was very thankful of. Eugene stayed shut in his room ever since he went back from the debriefing, only coming out once to get his dinner according to what Ian told her. As for Ian, whatever Zoe and Leo drilled into him actually worked and he mellowed out a little by the time Reyna saw him again. He was still visibly upset, though, but at least he wasn't causing any more trouble.

Leo went to help the mechanics fix his plane which was damaged by the shockwave caused by the missile. He didn't say a word about it so Reyna didn't learn he was doing that until she heard from one of his mechanics who was taking a break in the cafeteria in the evening. Apparently, the man reverted back to his usual quiet self again.

Reyna could never really figure Leo out even though he's been flying as her wingman for a month now. Even Rick and Roy usually made fun of the guy's aloofness, saying that he tried too hard to look cool. At least he's a good enough pilot to keep his plane in one piece after that nasty attack, so Reyna supposes he has what it takes to be in the squadron.

After resigning to the fact that she'd probably not be able to finish the letters tonight, she decided she didn't want to sleep just yet and went out of her room for a walk to clear her mind. God knows every time she wanted to close her eyes, all she could see were the faces of friends she wasn't able to save, the panicking shouts and terrified screams in their last moments, Paula's body reacting to the deliberator as the doctors tried in vain to shock her back to life…

Before she realized it, she found herself back at the infirmary. She didn't even know why she come here when she didn't want any reminder of how much she failed today. Maybe it's because she had nowhere else to go. Maybe she just wanted to pay her respects to Paula one last time.

As it turned out, she wasn't the only one who had the same idea.

"Can't sleep, huh?" Zoe asked as soon as she saw her captain step into the room. She was sitting beside Elena's bed. Elena was already sleeping soundly, either from the pills the doctors gave her or from the exhaustion of what she's been through today.

"You could say that." Reyna nodded to her WSO before turning toward Paula's bed, only to find that the doctors had already put curtains around it.

"They already moved Paula to the morgue," Zoe said solemnly, "They said they had to reserve the bed in case…well, in case there's someone else who needs it."

"That's understandable," Reyna replied as she walked to grab a nearby chair then dragged it until she's opposite of Zoe before sitting down. She gestured to Elena. "How's she?"

"Well, she's doing well, all things considered. Doc just gave her some pills earlier to put her to sleep. She could use a good rest after the hell we've been through today," Zoe explained, "Your cousin also hadn't woken up yet. Guy's a heavy sleeper, huh?"

Reyna chuckled – finding Zoe's comment a bit amusing - while turning to look at the bed on the far end of the room where her cousin was sleeping peacefully on. It's almost hard to believe that he had just been through hell this morning, the same hell that she went through in the afternoon as well. She kinda wished that he was awake, though. She needed him now more than ever. With all the crap they both went through in one day, they both probably have a lot to vent out. Alas, it seems it won't be tonight.

Reyna turned her attention instead to Zoe, "What about you? Last time I saw you, you didn't look so well. How are you holding up?"

"How do you think?" Zoe said dryly, though there's an obvious hint of sadness in her voice, "I just lost seven friends, including my best mate who died right in front of me. We're down to below half strength and we barely made a dent in the enemy's overwhelming force that possessed a weapon that could one-shot us all to hell and we can't even see it coming. Other than that, yeah, I think I'm good."

"Don't forget that one of our wizzos went crazy and terrified the hell out of our mission control," Reyna joked in an attempt to lighten up the mood. It seemed to have worked, as Zoe managed to giggle a little after that, prompting a small smile out of Reyna. At least she seemed to have cheered up a little bit, though Reyna still wanted to offer her condolences for her loss, "I'm sorry about Paula. I heard you two were close together."

Zoe nodded, "We were friends since academy - Paula and me. Well, we were friends with the others as well, but Paula was…was someone very close to me."

Zoe's voice was shaking a bit as she clenched the hands on her lap. Reyna could see that she was holding something in them. Some kind of trinket?

Noticing that her captain was watching curiously at her hands, Zoe decided to reveal what she was holding: a keychain that connected to a small white observation tower model.

"It's the NC Tower. Paula and I got a pair of it when we went to see the World Cup Final to November City years ago," Zoe explained – her face forming a small smile as she reminisced the good memories she shared with her late best friend, "Lovely city. Lovely people. One of the best experiences we've ever had overboard, I'd say."

"I wish I could've been there with you two," Reyna said as she smiled along with Zoe, "All my life, I never get to go anywhere nice. My friends all get to travel and see the world. Me? Heh. I'd be lucky if I could get a week-long trip to Stand Canyon."

"Parents won't let you?" Zoe guessed, couldn't help but feel a little amused at her captain's situation.

"Sort of, yeah," Reyna giggled, "They were always so worried about me going somewhere far away from home. Always warned me that the world is dangerous and yadda, yadda, yadda. They always brought up the wars that happened as excuses to stop me from going overseas. Said they didn't want to see me getting myself killed in someone else's war."

"They must've thrown quite a fit once you joined the air force," Zoe noted.

"Yeah. My way of rebelling against them, I suppose," Reyna replied, "It's as close as I can get to being able to go anywhere I want without actually leaving my homeland, so technically I _didn't_ break their rules."

That actually got Zoe to chuckle a bit, "Well, now you actually have to risk your life fighting in a war, though. Start having second thoughts yet?"

"I know what I'm getting myself into when I sign up for this," Reyna replied, her smile fading a bit, "It's bound to happen sooner or later. Wars did happen a lot these past few years, after all, and those Leasathians have been causing trouble for a long time, and now we're in this mess…"

Reyna paused as she realized that the conversation now veered back toward the topic she was trying to avoid. They could only keep the small talks going for so long.

Reyna sighed. Even though she did say that she knew what she got herself into, she was never really prepared for _this_. She was prepared to fight in a war. Hell, she prepared to _die_ in it if it means she could protect her home. But she was not prepared to lose so many people close to her. People that she had known for years. People that trusted her to keep them safe. And she couldn't do a bloody thing to protect them.

Both Reyna and Zoe sat there in silence for a while, both of them not knowing what to say to each other. Eventually, seeing that her captain looked uncomfortable to say anything, Zoe decided to begin first,

"You know, there is another reason why I'm fascinated with November City," Zoe said as she placed the NC Tower keychain on a nearby desk, arranging it in a way that the model tower stood upward, "You remember how it was one of the cities that fell under attack by the Yukes during the Circum-Pacific War ten years ago?"

"Yeah. If I remember correctly, there was a peace rally, right?" Reyna replied, recalling what she had learned from the recently declassified information that had just been released by the Osean Government per their former president's wish, "Osean ace pilots tried their best to defend the city, but one of them got shot down in the process. Some guy named Davenport, I think."

"Lieutenant Colonel Alvin H. Davenport," Zoe corrected, "One of the famous Demons of Razgriz: OADF's darlings back then until they turned traitors – or so they thought. Turned out Davenport's friends faked their deaths and joined a secret task force to hunt down the people truly responsible for the war. They succeeded and managed to avenge their friend's death, stopping the war in the process."

"Yeah, so I've heard." Reyna nodded. She had heard quite a few tales about the Demons of Razgriz herself, even before their full information was declassified. A group of four, well, actually five pilots, who found themselves in the middle of a web of conspiracies that threatened to destroy their nation. Despite the odds stacked against them, most of them managed to pull through and brought an end to the conflict. Reyna wished she could have some of their luck right now.

"Why did you suddenly bring this up, anyway?"

Zoe didn't reply right away. She turned her head to look at the pale moonlight outside the window with a sad expression on her face, it made Reyna felt a bit guilty for even asking the question.

"You know the name Alvin H. Davenport," Zoe began, "But does the name Henry Dalton ring you any bell?"

Reyna hesitated a moment before answering. She was afraid of saying the wrong things to Zoe again, "I…I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the name. Sorry."

"I'm not surprised," Zoe chuckled bitterly, "Nobody really bothered to remember the wizzos, after all."

"Huh?"

"Henry Dalton was Davenport's wizzo," Zoe explained as she grabbed the keychain back into her hands and fiddling it nervously, "And he died along with him when they both crashed their F-14 into the stadium in November City."

"I…I never realized that before…" Reyna said softly. She vaguely remembered seeing the name 'Dalton' coming up a handful of times when she looked up the declassified info, but the name came up so few times, it might as well not be there at all. She didn't even remember his name being mentioned in the section about that fateful day in November City as well.

"Dalton was a native of November City. He was a widower who was a father of two kids" Zoe continued, speaking as if she knew the man all her life, "That day, his kids were present there at the stadium to watch the ceremonial flight. They were there when…when they saw their father's plane went down in flames."

Zoe sighed upon mentioning the last part. Reyna had a feeling that she went out of her way to dig up as much information about this Dalton guy as much as she could, as if the man's history related to her personally. Zoe visibly tensed up as she continued, "In the official records that were over two hundred pages long, his name was mentioned eight times. _Eight times._ People remember the Razgriz pilots. They _honor_ the Razgriz pilots. But how many of them knew that Henry Dalton existed? How many of them knew that he was also there with them in every battle until the last day of his life? How many of them even cared that his two sons are now orphans?"

" _You_ cared," Reyna spoke up as she moved her hands to hold Zoe's, along with the NC Tower keychain she was holding, "You remember that he existed. You remember how much he sacrificed to protect his hometown and his kids. And I'm sure that the Razgriz pilots also remember him as well. Someone will keep his memory alive, one way or another."

"I just…" Zoe's voice trembled as she tried to hold herself together, "The reason I brought this up is that I don't want Paula…I don't want the names of everyone who lost their lives today to be just that. Just names. They were my friends, damn it. They have people who cared about them, people who would be devastated now that they're gone. I want to at least keep their memories alive as much as I could. Someone has to."

"I'll make sure of it," Reyna promised, "They were my friends, too, Zoe. I'll do anything in my power to make sure they're remembered. I promise that their families will get the benefits they're due. That our country will know how much they sacrificed for it. I'll get it done if it's the last thing I do."

That managed to make Zoe smiled a little, to which Reyna returned heartily. Zoe leaned forward a little before hesitating, unsure of what to do next. Reyna decided to make it easier for her and reached her arms across Zoe's back, wrapping her in a warm embrace. Reyna was never really that good with words, so she let her body do the talking. The feeling of a smile forming on Zoe's face rested on her shoulder suggested that it was enough.

"Well, it'd really be the last thing you do if you don't figure out how to get us out of this mess tomorrow, captain." Zoe joked a little to lighten up the mood, causing Reyna to chuckle.

"That depends on Eugene, really. Hopefully, he's hard at work with a counterattack plan," Reyna replied as she finally let Zoe go, "You should get some rest. Tomorrow is going to be another big day for us."

"Is there any other kind?" Zoe said as she got up from the chair, "Don't overwork yourself as well, Reyna. We all still need you. Now more than ever."

"No pressure, huh?" Reyna grinned, "Thanks for the talk, Zoe."

"Pleasure's all mine, captain," Zoe replied with an endearing smile, "Good night, Reyna."

Taking one last look at both her cousin and Elena, still sleeping soundly in their beds, Reyna wished that they'd make a quick recovery soon before she and Zoe left the room and went back to their quarters.

Tired from everything as she was, Reyna had already made her mind that she's going to finish the letters to her friends' families tonight. If this is really going to be the one last decent thing she'd do. If this is really going to be her last night alive, then she would get it done – no matter what it takes. They earned that much.


	4. Out of the Fire

**Griswall, East Aurelia**

_**October 11** _ _**th** _ _**, 2020** _

**0845hrs**

"…So let this be a symbol of fury born by our countrymen towards Aurelia, who have sought only to capitalize on our country's inner turmoil for their own selfish interests! Let this be a reminder to all of you that any injustice done toward our mighty nation shall not go unanswered! Let this be the statement to the world that Leasath will tolerate this oppression no longer!"

Such was the impassionate speech of Leasath's supreme commander, Diego Gaspar Navarro, as images of the last Aurelian Air Force squadron's destruction over Cape Aubrey played on the large jumbotron screen in the middle of Aster Square, occasionally transitioning with live footages of the Leasathian Military as they engage the weary and outnumbered Aurelian soldiers. Looming over them all was a massive jet black sky fortress that was responsible for most of the Leasathian victories in the past ten days. They had been keeping its existence under wraps for a while but it seemed they finally decided to officially introduce it to the world, probably to further cement their reputation.

The video has been playing on repeat since yesterday's evening now, and Navarro's gravelly voice continued to echo through Genette's hungover brain since he got out of his hotel room this morning. The man really wanted to rub it in the faces of those Aurelians that he had them beaten, alright, but this is getting very tiring.

Genette sighed, stuffing his hands in his trouser pockets, as he observed a large crowd of Aurelian civilians gathering to watch the video on the jumbotron. There were angry murmurs and furious looks on their faces, but the presence of armed Leasathian soldiers nearby meant they couldn't do anything if they still value their own lives. With their city fallen under their enemy's control and the Aurelian soldiers driven out, those civilians were left at the mercy of the Leasathians. The soldiers usually ignore them and left them to their own devices, though, as long as they don't get any idea about doing something they shouldn't.

 _It's only a matter of time before that happens, though._ Genette thought to himself. History has proven time and time again that people don't take military occupations well. Sooner or later, a resistance movement will be formed to challenge them. It happened in Ustio, San Salvacion, Yuktobania, Emmeria, and it will eventually happen here as well. They just needed a spark of hope to light the fire.

 _Hopefully that spark hasn't burned out yet_.

Genette stared thoughtfully at the pic of the last AAF squadron getting shot down again. There's something really odd about it. The picture showed only _four_ planes getting shot down, but if Genette did his homework right, these guys were pilots of Gryphus Squadron, which should have _six_ planes. Where were the other two?

Peering his eyes so he could observe the picture closer, he noticed something else: the placement of planes in the squadron weren't what they should be. The four planes that went down – based on the positions they were in – would imply that they were flying in a loose group. Maybe not even in a formation, and he's pretty sure about this from his experience with Wardog/Razgriz Squadron. If Gryphus Squadron really had four planes, that _definitely_ wasn't how they should be flying.

 _There's something off about this picture. It has to be._ That's what Genette's journalist instincts told him. One of the most important rules in his line of work is to always question his sources, especially when those sources are related to the military. Edited photographs for security or propaganda purposes are among the most common cases, and with Leasath, it seems likely to be the former.

Hopefully, his friend in OIA would shed some light on all this. He's always a nut when it comes to superweapons of all kinds. Maybe he could tell him more about the 'Gleipnir' and its capabilities.

"What a pitiful sight…"

A female voice, spoken in a soft, almost regretful tone, caused Genette to lose his train of thought. He turned toward the speaker and saw a young lady – probably in her early thirties - in a dark green T-shirt and a pair of black jeans. She had a light-tanned skin, a slim yet athletic build, and an auburn hair tied up in a proper bun. She was staring at the jumbotron with a mixed expression of curiosity and pity. Genette wasn't sure if she was talking to him or just voicing her thoughts out loud. Nevertheless, he decided to talk to her anyway.

"I beg your pardon?"

The young lady turned to face him with a little awkward smile on her face. She gestured toward the jumbotron screen, "Those pilots. They deserve better than to go out like that."

Genette didn't reply right away, but he nodded in agreement. The lady's smile faded as she lowered her face, sighing, "I'm sorry, it's just…I'm getting tired of all these propaganda footage playing nonstop since yesterday. As if these Aurelians haven't suffered enough already."

"Probably it's not the only reason," Genette replied, figuring that it wouldn't hurt to share a few thoughts himself, "Leasath has always been taking any opportunity to show off their military power for the world to see, and what better way to present their newest toy by showing it crushing the last of the Aurelian resistance?"

The young lady chucked bitterly, "Heh. If their idea of displaying dominance is by using an invisible flying warship just to take down a single enemy squadron with an attack that they can't even see coming, then it's not much of a display. It's playing dirty. If anything, the Leasath Military should be ashamed of itself to resort to such tactics to win."

"Unfortunately, that's how wars are done these days," Genette said as he watched the Leasathian soldiers started dispersing the crowd away, "As long as it gets the results you wanted then anything is a fair game. Remember that rogue Erusean submarine captain who faked his surrender to the Oseans about a year ago?"

"Yeah. Who could forget a guy like that, huh? " The lady replied with a nod, "You seem to be well informed, mister."

"I'm a freelance journalist," Genette smiled back, "Looking up about this sort of thing is a favorite pastime of mine."

"That makes two of us," The lady said with a slightly more cheerful tone, "Wars are terrible, but they do have a lot of lessons to be learned. I'm curious to know which lessons we would get from this one."

"Trying to find out is the reason why I'm here," Genette said. There's something about this lady that made Genette think that he could at least trust her with some information about himself. Maybe it was the way she spoke about the downed Aurelian pilots? Maybe it was because of the lady herself? Genette couldn't help but feel a bit amused about himself letting his guard down because he has a soft spot for ladies. She _does_ seem like a nice person at first glance, though. Then again, he had been wrong before. Gotta try better to keep that in mind.

The lady nodded, acknowledging Genette's purpose here, "Can't say much about Aurelians, but if you want some Leasathian inputs, you can try getting in contact with someone at Gauiss Tower. Their high command had set up shop there since they took over Griswall."

 _Of course they would._ Genette thought humorously. If his experience in Navarro's penthouse in Alendal was any indication, it was obvious to him that Navarro would pick Gaiuss Tower as the location of Leasath Military's Central Command. This also confirmed Genette's suspicion about the lady herself as well: she's definitely someone from Leasath Military, albeit far friendlier than what he would expect. What was her purpose here, he wondered?

He turned to his right and face the tower itself before glancing upward. The white 'tower' was more accurately twin towers that stood atop the same building foundation, with four 'bridges' sections connecting the two towers together as they piercing high into the sky above.

"Did you know that Aurelia built Gaiuss Tower to be a symbol of peace?" Genette spoke up, piqued the young lady's interest, "How ironic that now it was used as Leasath's seat of power."

"The Arkbird and the Space Elevator were built to be symbols of peace, too. Didn't stop them from being used for warfare, anyway." The lady replied solemnly, "I guess that's one more thing we can learn from history: it loves irony."

"I suppose so."

For a while, both Genette and the lady just stood there observing the skies above them together, nothing up there except the sun traveling the same old path as it has been since the dawn of time. It's almost crazy to think that throughout human history, through all the wars and conflicts fought in the name of some grand ideal and purpose, that very same sun still rises and falls as if nothing has ever happened. Just another day in the cosmos. Just another reminder that the universe is far bigger than what humanity could ever achieve on this little blue planet, yet people never seem to get the memo.

Maybe it's because of the weariness of all the wars he covered these past few years finally starting to get to him. Maybe not. Still, Genette couldn't deny that he was starting to get sick of it all. Why couldn't the world just stay at peace for more than a few years for once? The rays of the sun burning his tired eyes didn't help his mood at all. He figured he should at least take up the lady's offer and look up some info at the Leasath's HQ at Gaiuss Tower soon, even though he'd rather be anywhere else but here right now. The sooner he gets to finish covering this completely one-sided war that never amounted to anything and return back to Osea, the better.

The young lady sighed again. She closed her eyes for a moment as she took a deep breath, taking in the clean air of Griswall to clear her mind, before turning to face Genette again. Something told him that she was just as tired of this war as he was.

"I have to go. My friends are waiting for me," She said in a surprisingly sad tone – almost as if she didn't want to leave. She reached her left hand into the left pocket of her jacket before taking out a piece of paper. She wrote something in it before handing it to Genette. It was a phone number – along with her name.

"Y'know, I don't give my number out to guys often, but you seem like a decent bloke," The lady smiled playfully, almost teasingly, which made Genette avoid her gaze with an awkward smile on his face, "If you're looking to cover the story on this, I might be able to help. Just give me a call with this number and we can arrange our next meeting."

"I…" Genette was taken aback by the sudden kind offer – from someone he just met, no less. Granted, a lot of friends he had all started out as strangers for him, too, but usually he's the one who's on the initiative, not the other way around, "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Well, it's not like I have anything better to do lately." The lady admitted as she crossed her arms, glancing in annoyance at the jumbotron again, which was now displaying the _Gleipnir_ prominently, "Not with that ugly thing keeps stealing my job, anyway."

"I…thank you so much, ma'am." Genette smiled, "Hopefully, we might have another chance to meet again."

"Looking forward to it, journalist," The lady give Genette a playful wink before she began walking away. Genette could've sworn he had heard her giggled lightly as she was some distance away.

If it wasn't for the fact that he could actually feel the small paper with the lady's phone number in his palm, Genette would've thought that he was in some sort of a dream resulted from the hangover he had since the morning. But this was real.

He took a closer look at the name mentioned below the number: _Erina Cortes, LAF._ Not a familiar name, that's for sure, but that can be remedied easily if he enlisted his friend's help this evening. He had to get in touch with that guy to dig up info about the _Gleipnir_ for his works, after all.

Taking out his smartphone to take a photo of it just in case, Genette carefully put the paper away in his dark jacket before deciding to return home to continue his work. As tired as he was, maybe this would make his current job turning out interesting yet. Only time will tell.

* * *

**Cape Aubrey, Aurelia**

**0915hrs**

"SONS OF BITCHES!"

Ian's angry shouts startled Reyna as she walked into the cafeteria. The TVs in the hall were displaying Leasath's propaganda video and what they were showing made Reyna winced: footages of Gryphus Squadron being shot down yesterday. Leasath was basically displaying their friends' last moments for the world to see, using it as propaganda was only rubbing the salt in the wound. No wonder why Ian was so furious.

"Goddamn cowards!" He continued yelling, his fists raised up high in the air. Leo and Zoe had to restrain him from venting his anger out on the poor hanging TV, "A symbol of fury!? I'll show you _fury_ ,

"Enough already, Ian!" Reyna shouted to him, "Save it for later! You wanna get even? Do it on today's sortie, not here!"

Ian froze still for a moment. Reyna glared at him to further dissuade him from doing anything stupid. Fortunately, he seemed to get the memo and quietly settled himself back down on his seat, albeit with a frustrated groan. "At least turn that shit off, goddammit!"

"Oblige him, please." Zoe agreed, turning toward an officer on mess duty and nodded. He quickly paced to grab the remote on one of the far tables. Before he switched the TV to another channel, Reyna observed the last image on the screen: a titanic black-bodied aircraft launching out a missile, most likely the same one that killed her friends.

 _An aerial warship. Of course it has to be an aerial warship._ Reyna sighed as she settled herself next to Zoe at the table. As if being able to read her thoughts, Zoe spoke up exactly what's on her mind, "Of course the Leasathians got a superweapon. It's _always_ the enemy who got a superweapon. What the hell do _we_ have?"

"We were supposed to have _something,_ " Seamus, Leo's mechanic who helped fixed his plane yesterday, said as he walked by with a tray of breakfast in his hands, "I don't know much details, but apparently the Atmos Ring in Griswall was supposed to have a network of energy-based turrets or something. Unfortunately for all of us, it's never finished by the time we're invaded."

"Figures. You'd think with all the years we had to prepare for the inevitable Leasath invasion, it would've been done long before now," Ian frowned, taking a bite from his sandwich in a way that was overly aggressive.

"Well, there's no use complaining about it. It's not like it can do us any good right now even if it's completed," Leo told them, "Griswall is on the other side of the country while we're stuck here. This base is all we have left."

"That's going to change today," Reyna said, trying to be optimistic, "Solano said he has some good news for us…sort of, so maybe we can actually strike back at the enemy for a change."

"Yeah, right, because the last time that kid had his hopes up, it ended _so well_ for us, huh?" Ian snickered, "Anyone wanna bet how he's gonna get us killed today?"

"Don't give me that crap, Ian. You wanna get grounded?" Reyna glared at him sternly, reminding him of the threat she gave him yesterday, "Nobody here is your enemy so don't go looking for one."

"Right, right! I got it already!" Ian quickly replied with a scoff, "When did you become such a hardass?"

 _I dunno, when did you become such_ _a dick?_ Reyna thought. For a moment, she felt lucky that Ian was only a WSO and not an actual pilot. She never has to deal with someone who's out of line before and she's sure as hell not looking forward to dealing with one. But the tensions were understandably high from recent events.

Aside from that, the rest of the breakfast was uneventful. Too uneventful to the point that Reyna felt awkward and uncomfortable. That sense of tension and uneasiness filled the mess hall. What would normally be a scene of a hearty meal between her friends - with Rick and Roy making fun of Luis or vice versa, Elena, Zoe, and Paula having their girly chats together, and Ian, Hank, and Jonas trying their damnest to get a word out of Leo – was lost to memory along with the friends who never made it back. All that's left were the depressing sight of battered survivors just eating their food in silence, no longer possessing that cheerful spirit they once had.

_Relax and smile. That's how we fly._

Gryphus Squadron's unofficial motto kept ringing in her head. Reyna couldn't help but feel somewhat amused at it. Those words were Rick's idea coined after he saw that silly emblem on her plane's tail wing. He always seems to make such a big deal out of it for some reason that Reyna couldn't figure out. With the turn of events happening since yesterday, she wondered if she ever understood any of her wingmen at all.

_Relax and smile? Easier said than done, Rick._

About ten minutes later, the group was done with breakfast. Leo and Ian went with Seamus to oversee their plane maintenance one last time before the sortie, while Reyna and Zoe went to see Elena in the infirmary. Reyna wanted to see her cousin as well, which was probably why she was very surprised to see the bed he was lying on last night empty once she walked into the room.

"He insisted to Doc that he's healed up enough," Louise, her cousin's only surviving wingman from Falco, explained once Reyna queried her about it, "Said he was sick of staying in bed all day long and that someone might need it more than him, so he went to take a walk outside since early this morning. Wanted some fresh air, I guess."

"That idiot…" Reyna mumbled, "This place could be attacked at any time and he goes for a walk?"

"Well, if this place's attacked, then the war's already lost anyway. I suppose it won't make that much difference." Elena spoke up, her face forming a resignation expression, "If I have to die, I'd rather be out there fighting than being stuck here in this stupid bed."

Zoe chuckled, finding Elena's deadpan acceptance somewhat amusing, "That is if the captain doesn't kill you first, girl."

"Hey!" Reyna elbowed Zoe lightly, though she found the comment a bit humorous herself, "I wouldn't want to kill you _again_ , Elena. I've 'killed' you enough times already during training. I want targets that could put up a better fight."

"Ouch. Need some water with that burn? _"_ Zoe laughed, while Elena grabbed some nearby tissue, crumble it into a ball, and throw it at Reyna, who ducked playfully in response. They both shared cheeky smiles at each other, and Reyna felt a sense of relief. It seemed like Elena's taking what happened well enough. She wanted to mention Paula but decided against it. At least not now.

"Heh, just wait until I get out of here," Elena said, rolling her body impatiently on the bed, "Goddamn docs! I told 'em I'm fit for duty already. Let me go kick some-ahh!"

Elena groaned in pain after moving her body a bit too fast for her liking. Even though she didn't receive any major injury, her body still suffered from extreme G-force when she bailed out of her doomed airplane, and it would be a while until she could fly again. Unfortunately, Paula wasn't so lucky: her parachute was punctured by debris as she floated down, causing her to hit the ground too fast and was severely injured, which led to her untimely death.

"Give it a week, Elena," Reyna advised, obviously not wanting to see any more harm to come to her wingman more than it already was, especially how she just managed to cheat death while most of her friends didn't just the day before. Not wanting to upset her, Reyna provided a different justification instead, "We don't have a spare plane so you have nothing to fly with, anyway."

"Heh. Don't remind me." Elena sighed in exasperation. "I suppose the only way we could get some new planes is that we actually have to win for once, so _make sure you do_ , captain. I'm sick of being here already."

"We'll win," Zoe reassured her, trying to sound as determined as she could, "We have to. And we'll get you that new plane you want, and hopefully someone that could be your…" She paused upon realizing that the topic just veered toward the subject of wizzos, and therefore Paula, then she winced. She was trying so hard to avoid this topic only to walk straight into it herself. How could she just callously suggest finding someone to be Elena's new WSO after she had just lost her friend?

Elena noticed the pained expression on Zoe's face and seemed to get what was troubling her, so she nodded with a small, understanding smile. "Don't worry. I can wait for a while longer," She said in a surprisingly soft tone, "And it's not like this war's gonna end anytime soon, right?"

"Not if we have anything to say about it, yeah," Reyna said as she reached her arm across Zoe's shoulder and pulled her close, causing Zoe to shriek out a bit, and Elena to chuckle at her expense, "We'll kick their asses on your behalf in the meantime, then. It's about time we scored a true victory for once."

Elena nodded slightly, satisfied at the comment. "I'll hold you onto it."

Zoe walked over and give Elena an affectionate pat on her left shoulder, "Rest up, girl. We'll take care of the rest."

"We'll be back before you know it," Reyna added, "Someone's gotta keep Leo and Ian from going crazy, after all."

"Heh, knowing you, it's probably the opposite," Elena snickered, "Be safe, both of you."

Reyna and Zoe nodded back with parting smiles. Taking one last look at her cousin's empty bed, Reyna wondered why her cousin couldn't be here so she can see him before going on another sortie. It was almost like he's trying to avoid her on purpose. She sighed lightly in resignation, making sure that Zoe couldn't notice the disappointment she was feeling before they both leave the infirmary and head toward the briefing room.

* * *

**0940hrs**

Just like back in the mess hall, the briefing room felt a lot emptier by the time everyone gathered together. Ian predictably took the furthest seat in the back so he could be as far from Eugene as possible, which suited Leo just fine. Reyna and Zoe took front row seats, leaving _many_ empty seats between them and the other pair of pilots. It hit Reyna once again about just how outnumbered they were. Four pilots and two planes were all that's left of the Aurelian Air Force. Eugene better be having some good news for them if they could ever hope to fight back the Leasathians.

As for Eugene, the young officer looked extremely exhausted. He was probably working all night long to look into the Leasathian Military prowess and concoct a plan of counterattack. At least that's Reyna's best guess after he arrived in the room with his trusty laptop. Despite being weary, he noticeably picked up the pace as he moved past Ian, who just gave him a cold glare like he couldn't care less about the young officer.

Reyna wondered if she could really trust Eugene to do the job this time. She was worried about his state-of-being given what he had been through, yes, but he needed to keep himself calm and focused. With the fate of the nation on the line, they cannot afford any distraction. She had been lenient to the young officer so far on account of his inexperience and rapid distress, but if he messes up that badly again, well, she hoped that she would at least make it back to chew him out herself if it's the last thing she does. It's not like there's going to be another chance if they messed up again anyway. It's win or die, and Reyna expected everyone including Eugene to understand that fact.

After a while, the screen finally turned on – covering the dark room in bright blue light. The only words on it in the upper left corner said _Accessing Tactical Data_ which flickered continuously. Eugene turned to face his audience – trying his hardest not to make eye contact with anyone in the room – before he finally began.

"Well, let's…let's get down to business, everyone…" Eugene stuttered, obviously still feeling a bit nervous. Reyna could've sworn she heard Ian muttering under his breath from the back of the room, "About damn time."

Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Eugene continued as the data was downloaded successfully and the screen changed, now displaying several photos of a large black aircraft – the same one that Reyna had seen on the Leasathian propaganda in the mess hall earlier – the thing that killed her friends.

"This is the _Gleipnir_ , the superweapon that Leasath used to take over all of Aurelia in only ten days," Eugene continued, stressing the name with pain in his voice. The bloody thing was responsible for all his misery in this past couple of days, after all. "It can be assumed that this…this monster… was responsible for the tragedy that struck us yesterday, and most likely the destruction of the 9th Experimental Squadron at Phuku Lagolla AFB as well."

Eugene's face saddened upon mentioning his old, now devastated base, no doubt recalling recent trauma once again. Ian opened his mouth as if he was about to say something snarky. Leo elbowed him in the side to stop him from doing so, to which both Reyna, Zoe, and _especially_ Eugene were very thankful.

"Supreme Leader Navarro has just formally announced its presence to the world since yesterday's evening. Before that, its existence was kept very well hidden." Eugene continued, "The ship's ability to cloak itself and attack its targets from very far away means nobody in Aurelia could see it coming."

"Which isn't helped by the sudden communications loss," Zoe noted, "We were blind for half a year before we get our intelligence systems back online. Who knows what the hell those Leasathians had been doing while nobody's keeping an eye on them."

Ian grunted irritably, "Sneaky Leasathian bastards. They couldn't take us on in a fair fight, so they had to resort to using that ugly thing to finish us off!"

Leo didn't say anything as usual, but his eyes narrowed as he leaned forward to observe the screen closer. It was hard to figure out Leo but Reyna could guess that something about _Gleipnir_ fascinated him. His expression was a mixture of surprise and distress, and anything that could stress _Leo_ out should concern Reyna as well.

The screen switched, replacing the _Gleipnir_ photos with a terrain map of South Osea, with bold yellow 'AURELIA' and 'LEASATH' marking the general locations of the two countries. The map zoomed into the western region of Aurelia as several more symbols and names popped up, most of them were the distinctive green-and-red Leasath Flag – representing locations under their occupation all over the region. There was a bright blue double circle representing Cape Aubrey. From it, a line was drawn to a red silhouette of a large aircraft with a peculiar shape – the _Gleipnir_ itself – covering a small Leasath Flag which represented their control over Puna Plains. She winced a little upon seeing Port Patterson down south with a big Leasath Flag covering it. That was where her base commander was captured. Nobody knows if he's even still alive.

"The _Gleipnir_ was last confirmed heading southeast across the Puna Plains," Eugene explained as the red aircraft began to move to the lower right corner before gradually fading away and disappearing entirely as it approached the Austral Sea, "However, we lost all traces of it soon after. I tried to dig into the intelligence network to gather as much data as I could but unfortunately, it can provide us no further details at this time. We'll just have to take what we can get."

Unsatisfied sighs filled the room just as Reyna predicted. Clearly Eugene's info was not enough for them. "So what _did_ you get?" Ian growled, not even trying to hide the disdain he had for the young officer, "That damned thing was responsible for all of Leasath's victories so far, and you just _lost_ it? We need to find and destroy it if we're going to have any chance at all to retake our country!"

To Reyna's surprise, Eugene turned to face Ian directly. There was still fear in his eyes, but he stood his ground. Reyna had a feeling that he realized that this mission's too important to let any personal feeling get in the way. "With all due respect, sir. The _Gleipnir_ nearly wiped out our entire attack force," He said calmly, "Even if we know where it is and attack it now, our remaining aerial attack strength is severely limited. We no longer have the necessary manpower _or_ supplies to pursue the _Gleipnir_. Attacking it now is not recommended, sir."

"So how the hell are we supposed to fight back when it's still out there?!" Ian demanded, "If we can't even fight the damn thing then the war's as good as lost already!"

Seeing Ian about to lose his temper at Eugene again, Reyna interrupted before it gets out of hand with a theory of her own, "With how massive that thing is, it can't fly forever. It needs a lot of fuel _and_ a lot of time to refuel it. This is not even mentioning the maintenance period. I'm willing to bet that it won't be flying for a while."

"How do you know that for sure?" Zoe asked, "Eugene just said we know next to nothing about that thing except that it can turn invisible."

"I'm glad you asked," Reyna smiled briefly at Zoe as she got up from her chair and approach the screen. She used a finger to trace a line from the Puna Plains to the Gleipnir's last known location, "According to Eugene, the _Gleipnir_ was heading southeast from the Puna Plains before disappearing just over Austral Sea. Since there was no change in direction, it's highly probable that they may be heading toward Terminus Island, here."

Reyna pointed at a chain of six islands lying southeast of Aurelia. Specifically, the westernmost island in the group. Zoe's eyes lit up as she realized just what her captain was talking about, "Terminus is the site of our country's largest oil refinery." She said, "Which means it's one of the first targets that the Leasathians attacked. It's Warfare 101: war machines can't work if we lack the fuel to feed them."

"And now we know that they have something that needs _a lot_ of feeding," Reyna continued, "Something the size of _Gleipnir_ surely needs a lot of fuel, regardless of its other specifications, and since Terminus Island is the only location that could provide the amount of fuel it needs, there's a good reason to believe that the _Gleipnir_ traveled to Terminus after yesterday's events."

"Great, so we know where it is. That doesn't mean it's no longer a threat." Ian spoke up, still not satisfied with the answer, "We have to destroy it while it's unable to defend itself!"

For once, Leo broke the silence as he said in irritation, "Man, haven't you been paying attention? _We don't have enough aerial attack strength._ Right now, we can only field two planes against a goddamn flying fortress. How the hell do you expect us to beat it alone? Besides, look at that map. Every single inch of land between us and Terminus Island is under Leasath's control. Unless you have an idea to get us through it, then shut the hell up."

Unable to come up with a retort, Ian grunted and slumped back into his chair. Reyna took the brief silence as the sign to continue: "So here's what we got so far: the _Gleipnir_ is most likely refueling at Terminus Island and it could be a while before it can fly again. That gives us some window to launch a counterattack."

She paused, turning to look at Eugene with a hopeful expression, "Officer Solano, do you have any recommended targets?"

Eugene nodded. "There are reports of enemy forces gathering at Port Patterson." If we don't move soon, it will only be a matter of time before they resume their attack on us. Given the situation, we are left with only one plan of attack." He paused as he zoomed into the Puna Plains, and the screen changed to that of a 3D tactical map displaying a number of red targets scattering all over the area, with most of them clustered around what seemed to be an airbase.

"On the Puna Plains lying between Aubrey Base and Port Patterson, Leasath forces have captured a small airbase there and use it as a resupply base to house the large number of supplies needed to support their troops. Aerial photographs taken yesterday suggested that the enemy had hastily moved in just early this morning, which means that the base should be lightly defended." Eugene explained.

 _Bingo_. Reyna thought. A resupply base is exactly the target they needed. They can cut off the Leasath forces' supplies while also gaining some for their own as well. "I think our mission is clear, then." She announced, "We have to take Puna Base and the supplies within it. This will give us some breathing room _and_ establish an important foothold for an attack on Port Patterson later."

"Sounds like a plan." Ian agreed, and for once he didn't seem pissed off. Reyna guessed the notion that at least they have a plan cheered him up a little, "So what ya want us to do, destroy all targets?"

"Just targets that posed a threat," Eugene replied. Reyna could've sworn his face lit up a little after Ian agreed with him for once, "There are multiple enemy bombers and cargo planes stationed at the base, as well as a few aerial defenders and anti-air systems. Make sure you _do not_ destroy other base facilities! We need the supplies in them to win this fight. Unless we succeed in taking this base, that's it for our supplies."

"Yeah, yeah, I know already!" Ian huffed in annoyance, "Just kill the combatants and leave the supplies alone. How hard could that be?"

Eugene just sighed as he turned the lights in the room back on, signaling the end of the briefing, "…please don't fail, sir." He said in an almost sarcastic tone.

Zoe rolled her eyes at their little bickering, which Reyna found a bit funny. For a brief moment, she felt a bit optimistic about their situation, which has been a long while since the last time. If this operation goes well, then perhaps the hostility between Ian and Eugene would drop a bit. And since they cannot afford to fail again then there's only one way this mission would end.

They're going to win.

* * *

**Puna Plains, Aurelia**

**1300hrs**

At just before noon, Gryphus Squadron took off from Cape Aubrey and make their way toward the Puna Plains. Since Elena was recovering from her injuries and left without a plane, only Reyna, Zoe, Leo, and Ian sortied. The once-formidable Aurelian Air Force was now down to just two F-4Es. If Reyna didn't know any better, she would have actually believed that this is some kind of a twisted prank that the world pulled on her: to have her surviving a hopeless battle into an even more hopeless battle, out of the fire into the…well, whatever's worse than fire. At least she was thankful that this time she got to eat something beforehand so her stomach wasn't screaming all the time just like it did yesterday.

Reyna wanted to see her cousin again before sortie, but the best she could manage was a glimpse of him just giving her a thumbs up with an awkward grin on his face just as she was already taxing her plane onto the runway. Probably just getting back from chilling at the nearby beach, she supposes. She couldn't help but snicker a bit. That idiot hasn't changed a bit after all these years, still acting like everything's alright in this world. God, he has to teach her how to chill out like that sometimes. They're going to have so much to talk about when she makes it back after this sortie.

It took about half an hour to get to Puna Plains, which made for a quite boring flight since Leo was being his stoic self. Ian and Zoe were also noticeably quieter than usual, and the occasional banter between them was short and dry. All this only served to remind Reyna of how much was lost when most of their friends were killed. From the experience in the mess hall, the briefing room, and now this…it was clear that things won't ever be the same as it was anymore among their squadron.

"Five more miles to Puna Base. Attack formation please." Crux announced. Reyna was almost thankful that someone finally breaks the awkward silence after so long, "This is Gryphus 1, copy. Gryphus 6, you're with me?"

"Loud and clear, Gryphus 1." Leo replied dryly, "Following your lead."

Reyna lowered her altitude. There was an AA gun right in front of her. It didn't seem to notice her. "They don't see us coming." Zoe noted, "You want to switch to bombs?"

"Negative," Reyna said. An AA gun shouldn't be too hard to kill. A simple missile would be enough. She locked on her target and fired a missile. It didn't even manage to turn a gun toward her before it was blown up. She moved on to engage a SAM turret sitting on a road just ahead of her, destroying it as well. Now there was nothing left between them and the base.

"I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that the sky's gloomy today," Ian spoke up, "They should have a harder time seeing us with the naked eye."

"Could do without the rain, though," Reyna replied as some light rain pour down on her cockpit. In her experience, rain and flight never go well together. The water droplets obscure vision, making it more difficult to see what's in front of her, and unlike cars – fighter jets don't have wipers. Ah, well, no use complaining about that.

Soon enough, Gryphus Squadron had the Puna Base directly within their sight. There was no alert siren yet, and the way Leasath soldiers scrambled all over the place down below suggested that they were not expected to be attacked at all. "Looks like we caught them with their pants down," Reyna remarked, feeling satisfied that the Leasathians were finally getting a taste of their own medicine for once.

Her eyes scanned the base: there were two C-5s and several B-52s parked around the airbase. A couple of F-5Es were sitting on the runway. The only defenses were two SAM sites and a remote AA gun that was too far away to be any real threat. As long as reinforcement didn't show up, this shouldn't take very long.

"Gryphus 6, engage your targets at will." She ordered.

"With pleasure," Ian replied for Leo enthusiastically. Reyna could picture him grinning already at the thought of getting some payback. She was almost thankful that it was the calmer Leo who was at the controls and not Ian. Gryphus 6 broke off and decrease its altitude before engaging the two parked B-52s in front of them. "Gryphus 6, pickle!" Ian announced as the plane dropped two unguided bombs on the closer bomber. The explosion destroyed it completely while also damaging the other, allowing Leo to finish it off with a pair of missiles.

Reyna went after another pair of B-52s lying next to the fuel tanks. "Make sure you don't destroy the tanks. We need those fuel." Zoe reminded her. Reyna only chuckled in response. She was never really good at precision bombing during training and Zoe knew it. The raindrops covering the cockpit didn't really help. Still, Reyna didn't want to waste precious time circling around and attack again when she could be dealing with other targets, so she went forward anyway.

She switched to bombs, a predicted impact point marker appeared over the HUD. She lined it her plane up so that the PIP marker was directly between the two bombers while also making sure that it was at a fair enough distance from the fuel tanks so they weren't caught in the blast radius.

"Gryphus 1, pickle!" Reyna announced as the bombs were launched, simultaneously pulling her plane up in the process. A couple of seconds later, she heard an explosion. She turned to look and saw that the two bombers were destroyed while the fuel tanks remained standing. Zoe actually chuckled after seeing the results, "Wow, I'm actually impressed."

"Have a little faith, dear," Reyna replied playfully. Though having said that, she was just as surprised that she actually pulled it off herself. Maybe she could actually do it again. She locked on a SAM site in front of her and destroy it with a sidewinder missile before turning to the right, moving in on a pair of F-5E fighters on the runway which were in a hurry to take off. She intended to make sure they don't.

The fighters were smaller targets than the bombers, and therefore her aim has to be more precise. Though unlike bombers, fighters were obviously more lightly-armored, so one bomb should do the trick. The raindrops on her cockpit were wiped away during the hard right turn earlier, so Reyna could see the targets more clearly.

"Gryphus 1, pickle!" She confirmed as soon as the planes aligned with the PIP marker. The bomb landed somewhere beyond the plane at the back, but the blast radius was wide enough that the further plane was also caught in the blast. Two more kills for her. Reyna didn't know whether she should be proud or not. She personally disliked shooting planes about to take off from the runway. On one hand, it's a good combat tactic and she really does want some payback for what the Leasathians did yesterday, but on the other, she was targeting helpless opponents who had no chance to fight back. She wouldn't want the same thing happening to her if she was in their place. Still, war is war.

She turned sharp left after noticing an AA gun lying on a hill. She was about to launch a missile when Gryphus 6 stole her thunder by destroying it first. "Too slow, captain!" Ian laughed, "We won't let you have all the fun!"

"Figured I should leave a few stragglers here and there, Rocketeer." Reyna replied snarkily, addressing Ian by his callsign, "Would be pretty boring if you guys have nothing to do." Ian made a stifled noise in response. Gryphus 6 moved in to engage a pair of AH-64 Apaches that had just taken off near the Leasath field H.Q. located a fair distance away from the airbase. Leo launched a pair of sidewinders at them. One managed to reach its target while the other managed to swerve left just in time. Reyna could hear Leo groaned through the radio, a pretty rare moment.

"I hate those things…" Leo mumbled. He left the surviving chopper alone for the moment while he switched to bombs once again. His plane was lining up on the field H.Q. and he wanted to take care of it first. Unlike his captain, Leo decided to drop two bombs on the field H.Q. when one bomb would suffice. He wanted to make sure that the Leasathians would be annihilated, and Ian was all too happy to oblige him.

"Leasath field H.Q. destroyed. That should keep them from calling reinforcement." Ian confirmed just before Leo circled their plane around and take care of the surviving chopper. Apparently nobody ever told Ian that it's not wise to tempt fate, as Crux immediately crushed his hope with his next report, "Too late, Gryphus 6. Intercepted enemy chatters revealed they had already sent out a distress call." He said grimly, "Two enemy squadrons are on their way from Port Patterson. ETA: one minute." Ian could only grunt angrily in response.

"You just _had_ to jinx it, didn't ya?!" Zoe snapped, "What are we gonna do now?"

"Stay calm, we still have some time. Let's finish up here quickly." Reyna ordered as calmly as she could. She quickly circled her plane around so that it faced the airbase facilities. Her HUD registered two hangars, a SAM site, and two C-5s. Leo must've had already destroyed one of the hangars and the control tower while she wasn't looking earlier.

"Gryphus 6, I told you to leave the base facilities alone!" Reyna said sternly as she engaged the last remaining SAM site, "We need those fighters!"

"Just a few of them!" Ian retorted, "We only have three pilots at the base, captain. Just three planes would suffice."

"That's not your decis…shit!" Reyna cursed as she swerved her plane hard to evade a missile fired from the SAM site, barely avoiding it hitting her right wing tip. Due to the sharp angle, she couldn't line up her plane again before she overshot the SAM site, forcing her to waste some more time to make another pass. She yelled into the radio and finished chewing Leo and Ian out, "That's not your decision to make!"

"Relax, captain. We know what we're doing." This time, it was Leo who replied, much to Reyna's surprise, "Those hangars probably didn't even have any plane in them. They had just moved in this morning, remember?"

"That's…" Reyna paused. Leo did have a point. Those two F-5Es she destroyed on the runway might just be the only two fighters the Leasathians had stationed at the base at the moment. Those hangars were most likely empty just like Leo said. She drove the thought away momentarily as she prepared to engage the SAM site again. She didn't even let it has a chance to lock on her this time. "Gryphus 1, fox two!"

Without the anti-air defense, Reyna was free to engage the two remaining cargo planes. She switched to bombs and line her plane up with the C-5s. She could see Leasathian soldiers running away from the planes and she winced. That sudden pang of guilt crossed her mind again. She was about to kill those people, and this time she actually has to see them die. Even though they were her enemies, the thought of soldiers wailing in agony with grave wounds couldn't leave her mind.

That image of Paula's lifeless body flashed to her mind again.

"Gryphus 1, pickle!" She announced loudly, almost shouting out. She had to do it before she loses her focus and jeopardizes the mission. She could find time to reflect on her morals later, but not here. The two bombs dropped in between the two cargo planes. The explosion annihilated the two remaining targets as well as most of the soldiers in the vicinity. Reyna sped her plane past as quickly as she could, not wanting to see the aftermath.

"Leasathian soldiers are abandoning the base!" Crux complimented, and he was right. From the corner of her eyes, Reyna could see some Leasath soldiers running away as fast as their legs could take them. "However, we still have to defend the base against enemy reinforcements until we can get an allied force to secure it. Gryphus Squadron, you must hold air superiority over the target." Crux continued, "The first squadron has arrived. Three bogies!"

"Gryphus 6, form up on me!" Reyna ordered. Leo knew his job and maneuvered his plane to join his captain at her six. Reyna checked her radar and noticed three enemy planes approaching from the southwest: the direction of Port Patterson.

"How the hell could they get here so fast!?" Zoe wondered, "It would take at least half an hour to get here from Patterson!"

"They must've already been on their way to reinforce the base." Ian guessed, "We just got here before they do."

"Let's give them a warm welcome, then," Reyna spoke as she switched to missiles, trying to peer through the rain-soaked canopy to see her targets. It was starting to rain harder now. They had to finish the fight as soon as possible.

"Crux, keep us posted. I don't want any surprises from the _Gleipnir_ today!" Reyna ordered, not wanting a repeat of yesterday's tragedy. Better safe than sorry. The last thing she needed was an unseen attack while she's dogfighting enemies.

"Gryphus 1, copy!" Crux confirmed, sounding more tense than usual, obviously not feeling happy to be reminded of his foul-up.

"Target in sight!" Zoe reported, just as the three enemy bogies appeared on Reyna's HUD: two F-4Es and one F-5E. She considered her options quickly: the F-5E is faster and more nimble. Leo's F-4E had just been through a hasty repair, which meant it wasn't working at its full capabilities yet. "Gryphus 6, I'll take care of the F-5," She ordered, "You take the F-4s. Request help if you need it."

"Wilco." Leo complied. He broke his plane to engage the F-4E on his right, while Reyna maintained her heading toward the F-5 directly ahead of her. The other F-4E on the left stayed with its flight leader to engage Reyna together, so it was a two-on-one.

"Damn it…" Reyna cursed. The gathering low clouds were affecting her lock-on system, not helped by the rain that practically covered every inch of her canopy. She could only hope that this rain was affecting her opponents just as bad. Eventually, a sound of missile alert blared into her cockpit. The enemy F-5 had fired a missile.

"Evade, captain!" Zoe yelled in a panic. Reyna had no choice but to pull a twist to the left to avoid the missile. The rain on the canopy wiped away from the force of gravity, revealing that she ended up right in front of the other F-4.

_Shit._

With no time to lock on and the distance between them too close for any fancy maneuver. Reyna was left with only one option: she sprayed hails of MG fires on it.

_Die, damn you! Die!_

For a brief moment, Reyna felt the deepest desire to see her enemy burn. Adrenaline rush almost made time slow down a bit for her, and suddenly she could see her enemy clearly despite the rain. This was someone who was going to kill her, her friends, and everything she held dear, but she won't let them. Not a chance in hell. She was going to kill them first. At that moment, nothing else mattered in the world.

_Just die already, you fucking Leasath!_

Mere moments before their planes crashed into each other, the F-4E exploded into scrap metals. Reyna flew through it not even realizing what just happened at first, before Zoe's shouts brought her back to reality, "…down! Bogey down! That was insane!"

Reyna plunged her plane down a little while speeding up, feeling that a little blood to her head should make her mind clearer. She didn't even have a chance to catch her breath before another shouting echoing into the radio, it was Ian: "This is Gryphus 6, I need support!"

Reyna turned around to check her wingman. Leo was chasing down the other F-4 that he engaged, but the F-5 that Reyna let go earlier was now in hot on his tail as well, and due to its superior maneuverability, the enemy looked like he was about to gain the upper hand at any moment.

"Hang tight, Gryphus 6. Help is coming." Reyna reassured as she turned her plane around as fast as she could before punching her thrusters, pushing her plane as fast as its engines could take her. She got into position behind the enemy F-5, still chasing Leo's tail like a mad dog. Apparently, the pilot was so occupied with going for the kill to worry that Reyna was getting behind him, which made it surprisingly easy for Reyna to get a lock on him. "Gryphus 1, fox two!"

She launched a pair of missiles at the enemy. It was only then that the F-5 pilot tried to evade, but by then it was too late. The two missiles hit him cleanly and the aircraft exploded. Without anyone on his six, Leo was free to continue pursuing his target. A few seconds later, he gained his kill as well.

"Hell yeah!" Ian yelled in triumph, "That's more like it!"

"Crux, any incoming missile?" Reyna asked her mission control. She wouldn't take any chance. Crux immediately responded without missing a beat, "Negative, but the second enemy squadron has arrived. Two F-5s and one F-4. Bearing 137 from the reference point. Seems to be the last one."

"Just say they're from Patterson just like the first squadron, damn it!" Ian snapped, though Reyna had a feeling it was just his personal dislike of technical terms rearing its head, "What's our plan, captain?"

"We…" Reyna didn't get a chance to finish her order before the missile alert blared up in her cockpit again, and it wasn't only her as well, "Shit, the enemy has a lock on me!" Leo grunted. The enemy planes were gunning for them before they even arrive at the combat zone to get a lock on them so quickly.

"Evasion action! Dive! Dive!" Reyna barked. She and Leo pitched their planes down quickly to avoid the missiles fired from enemy planes. They pulled up just before they hit the ground. Fortunately, they were quite experienced flying low already so it wasn't much problem.

"Alright, some breathing room." Reyna said, "Gryphus 6, get the F-4. I'll take care of the other two."

"They're way faster than you!" Ian protested. Reyna could only groan in response. _Thanks for telling me something I don't need to hear again, Rocketeer!_

She had no choice. She had to take care of them one way or another. She wished Elena was here. Before she even had a chance to prepare, one of the F-5s was tracking her from above once again. Her eyes quickly scanned the area: she was now flying over a plain with nothing below.

"Bogey has a lock!" Zoe exclaimed just as the missile warning alarm began blaring, "Get us out of here!"

The enemy F-5 fired out a missile. Reyna immediately applied thrust and pulled her plane up sharply, executing the beginning phase of a barrel roll. Thankfully, her plane was still traveling at a quick velocity since she dropped altitude earlier, so it didn't take very long for it to climb up. The enemy missile narrowly missed her by barely a second. For once, the F-5's mobility worked against its favor. The bogey was hot on Reyna's tail so he overshot her entirely as Reyna was inverted above him.

The G-force was straining on Reyna's body like a harsh mistress, but she gritted through it. Her plane started to descend downward quickly, also removing the raindrops on the canopy and allowing her to see her target not far ahead of her. With the barrel roll maneuver completed, she now had the enemy directly ahead of her.

"Gotcha." She grinned as she finally got a lock, "Fox two!"

A sidewinder launched out. The bogey deployed flares and pulled a sharp left turn to evade for good measure, but Reyna wasn't about to let it escape. She was hot on the enemy's tail, and although her plane was slower, her missile wasn't - and she happened to have a good aim.

"I have a lock," She confirmed, "Fox two!"

Another sidewinder launched. This time her opponent wasn't so lucky. The missile struck the target somewhere near the right wing, triggering an explosion that tore it off completely and sending it crashing into the ground.

"Kill confirmed!" Zoe cheered as Reyna turned their plane around. They soon heard Ian's signature yell of triumph through the radio, implying that he and Leo had somehow managed to shoot down their target as well. Only one plane left. The tide had finally turned.

"Captain, let's get this son of a bitch!" Ian spoke excitedly.

The two Gryphus planes converge in on the last Leasathian fighter, who understandably realized that it was now fighting a losing battle and attempting to retreat. Unfortunately for him, his mad dash to escape made him a sitting duck for Reyna and Leo. Within moments, two missiles from both planes finally put an end to the battle.

"Confirmed enemy destruction, Gryphus Squadron!" Crux spoke out with relief, "Radar also showed no sign of any missile as well. I already triple checked it. No more incoming enemy squadrons. Looks like we win this round!"

Just then, Zoe and Ian cheered loudly through the cockpit (and Leo was silent, as usual), signaling their victory. Reyna couldn't help but join in the fun as well. Against all odds, they had actually won their first true victory! It was a small step, but it was a big step up from the total disaster yesterday, and that alone was worth it for her.

"This is Major Boyle, of Davis Unit." A gruff voice spoke through the radio to Gryphus Squadron, "We're inbound to take control of the Puna Base. Could see those Leasath bastards running from here. Thanks for your help, Gryphus! We'll take care of the rest!"

"You're welcome, Major!" Reyna replied joyfully. Davis Unit's arrival only served to solidify their victory today.

As Gryphus Squadron returned home, the gloomy sky started to clear up as the rain stopped, revealing the first true sunlight of the day. Normally, she couldn't stand the heat from the sun at all, but this time, Reyna wholeheartedly embraced the warmth that it brought. It was the most beautiful sunshine she had ever seen in a long time.

* * *

**Griswall, East Aurelia**

**1530hrs**

Waking up from the afternoon nap, Genette put his hand up to cover his eyes from the sunlight. He grabbed his mobile phone placed on a bedstand to see the time, before groaning after he realized it was just late afternoon. Lazily, he got up from the bed before walking slowly toward the window covered with blinds. Somehow, this room reminded him a lot of the crew quarters that he used to share with the Razgriz pilots on Sand Island on those years ago, which means it was less of a room and more like a cell he was assigned to. To think that the people who are capable of achieving an architectural marvel like the Gaiuss Tower and the Atmos Ring couldn't design their hotel rooms better. What an irony.

Peeking his eyes through the blinds – with that weird sense of déjà vu – to see what was going on outside, Genette sighed upon seeing that the situation in Griswall was still exactly the same as it was in the morning. Leasathian soldiers were all over the place, their military vehicles were either parked at checkpoints or patrolling the streets all day long, and that goddamn loudspeaker was still blaring Navarro's speech nonstop. As if that wasn't bad enough already, the heat from the sun showed no sign of cooling down a bit, even though it was late afternoon already. He'll never get used to being in the Southern Hemisphere with its backward seasons.

After finishing washing his face to refresh himself, Genette returned to his laptop placed on a desk next to the window, intending to continue his journal. As soon as he booted his laptop up and check his emails, something caught his eyes, though.

_D. North – Requested Info_

Genette frowned. He didn't expect that David would work that fast. Then again, the guy managed to somehow stay up three days long once working with the LRSSG to take down a gigantic submarine commanded by a rogue Erusean captain. He supposed this would be just another day in the office for him.

The message in the email was short and to the point, which certainly didn't reflect how its owner could go on and on whenever a subject of interest is brought up in a conversation. He was almost thankful that David decided to send him an email and not a voicemail instead. He wasn't ready for yet another headache just after a nice nap.

_Here's all the info you requested for that person you mentioned. I'm sure you'll find her pretty interesting. I'll send you an update on the Gleipnir later._

_You owe me one for this, G-Man!_

_Stay outta trouble._

_\- D._

_PS. Alex says hi._

_PSS. She also calls my hypothesis trash again._

Genette couldn't help but grin at the email. That guy still hasn't changed a bit even after all these years. Even though they rarely met each other face to face due to their own works, they often find the time to chat or voice-call through the internet to keep in touch, and they occasionally helped each other with useful info that could be beneficial to the right people, such as this case.

After gulping down some water to quench his thirst, Genette finally opened the file attached with the email, eagerly wanting to learn more about that mysterious charming lady he had met earlier that morning.

The first words that appeared on the screen already had his full attention.

_**Major Erina Iglesias Cortes** _

_**Leasath Air Force** _

_**4** _ _**th** _ _**Tactical Fighter Squadron, 5** _ _**th** _ _**Air Division 'Alect Squadron'** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm currently taking a short break from writing fanfics so you won't see any new chapter for The Southern Cross for a while until I feel I'm ready to tackle it again. Life is pretty busy lately and I want to focus on writing my own book as well. I promise that I won't abandon this story, though, and will try to continue it as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and patience! :)


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